REPORTS OF COMMITTEES
| Published date | 01 July 1973 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1973.tb01375.x |
| Date | 01 July 1973 |
ltEPORTS
OF
COMMITTEES
THE YOUNGER
COMMITTEE
REPORT
ON
PRIVACY
1.
BACKGROUND
IN
1970
the Justice Report
Privacy
and
the
Law
recommended that
a
legal right of privacy should be created enabling persons whose
rights were infringed to sue in tort. The Report contained a draft
Bill which formed the basis of the Right of Privacy Bill introduced
into the House of Commons at the same time by Brian Walden,
M.P.~
These proposals, which were vigorously debated, met with
considerable hostility, particularly from the press and the
Press
Council, who feared that
"
freedom of speech
''
would be fettered
severely. The government, too, was not happy as
to
whether the
proposal was the most satisfactory way of solving the problem and,
whilst opposing the Walden Bill, decided to set up
its
own Com-
mittee. Thus, the value of the Justice Committee Report was
that it proved to be a catalyst for the creation of the Younger
Committee
;
what the latter produces remains to be seen.
Although the terms of reference of the Committee were wide,
it
was precluded from dealing with the problems of privacy in the
public sector-the activities of government departments and other
public agencies-save for broadcasting and universities. This exclu-
sion was unfortunate. Although the government did give an
assurance that any future consideration of the public sector
is
bound to have regard to the Committee's recommendations for the
private sector, the Younger Committee Report, interesting and use-
ful though it may be, is an incomplete document; there should have
been an opportunity for a comprehensive survey. Evidence was
received from
a
large number
of
organisations, but the response
from individual members
of
the public was very small. To supple-
ment this,
a
professional survey
of
public attitudes to privacy was
commissioned.
For
those looking for exciting pointers, the survey
turned out to be inconclusive and disappointing: there was some
anxiety about the extent to which a general deterioration in privacy
might affect the individual in future, and most people thought
"
privacy
"
to be important, even though there was
no
clear
understanding of what
it
covered. The only conclusion to be drawn
was that privacy is a basic need of both a free society and a mature
personality but
it
was not
"
possible to state in general terms how
1
Revort
of
the
Committee
on
Privacv
(1972).
Cmnd.
6019.
2
Privacy
'and
the
Law
(Sweet a2 'Maxwell). See T.aylor,
"
Privacy
and
the
Public
"
(1971)
34
M.L.R.
288.
399
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