黑洞社区

The Information Commissioner came under fire from MPs today for not doing more to expose the scandal of blacklisting in the construction industry.

Members of the Scottish Affairs select committee - which is carrying out an inquiry into blacklisting in employment  - expressed incredulity that the Information Commissioner鈥檚 Office (ICO) had removed only around 5% of the written files found during a 2008 raid on the office of blacklisting organisation the Consulting Association.

The Droitwich-based Consulting Association was run by Ian Kerr and sold details on construction workers鈥� union activity, personal relationships and employment history to more than 40 customers including Carillion, Balfour Beatty and Sir Robert McAlpine.

Giving evidence to the committee, ICO investigations manager and former policeman David Clancy said that he was satisfied that the organisation had found the 3,200-strong blacklist that it suspected the Consulting Association held and was covered by the warrant the ICO had obtained.

But committee chairman Ian Davidson suggested the ICO鈥檚 failure to properly examine all the written material in the office had left the public in 鈥渃omplete ignorance鈥� about the remaining 95% of files and speculated this could have provided further evidence of blacklisting in construction and other sectors.

鈥淭here could have been twice as many names or 10 times as many names in there,鈥� he said.

鈥淭o use the police analogy 鈥� if they had found drugs, they might have gone on to find two handguns鈥�I鈥檓 surprised that you stopped at that point鈥�I still don鈥檛 understand why you didn鈥檛 go through everything else to ensure it wasn鈥檛 relevant.鈥�

MPs also criticised the fact that less than 200 individuals out of the 3,200 have been notified of their place on the list, three years on from its exposure in 2009.

ICO policy has been to confirm individuals are on the blacklist only if they personally contact the ICO in writing, providing proof of identity.

鈥淚t is almost as if this was designed to stop people accessing this information,鈥� Davidson said.

But ICO deputy commissioner David Smith said it was proud of exposing and shutting down the Consulting Association and said it had acted in good faith and in accordance with data protection laws.

He said: 鈥淣obody raised any question for three years that we were not doing enough and 2,000 people were sufficiently aware to contact our offices [for information].

鈥淚 do accept we could have done more and maybe on reflection should have done more but please don鈥檛 think we were cavalier鈥�we felt we were doing the right thing at the time.鈥�

The committee is expected to call union Ucatt to give evidence as well as construction firms including Carillion.