Rt Hon Jack Straw, MP was appointed Home Secretary on 2 May 1997. Mr Straw has been the Member of Parliament for Blackburn since 1979.
Mr Straw was born in 1946 and educated at Brentwood School, Essex and Leeds University. He was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1972. He is a visiting Fellow of Nuffield College Oxford and a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society.
[..]Mr Straw was President of Leeds University Students' Union from 1967-1968 and of the National Union of Students from 1969-1971. From 1971 to 1974 Mr Straw was a member of the Inner London Education Authority and Deputy Leader from 1973 to 1974.
[..]His recreations are walking, music, cooking puddings and supporting Blackburn Rovers.
For consistent violation of rights, above and beyond the call of duty.
From the Guardian...
Figures undermine Straw's drugs case
Alan Travis, Home Affairs Editor
Friday October 1, 1999
[...]
the most controversial law and order announcement has been the mandatory drug testing of all those arrested by the police and a change in the law to deny bail those testing positive for heroin and cocaine. The measure was outlined by Tony Blair last Sunday but no further details of how it will work have been forthcoming.
Mr Straw justified its introduction saying that billions of pounds worth of possessions were stolen each year to feed criminals' heroin and cocaine habits.
"Identifying those who are addicted and reducing crime go hand in hand. That's why we are going to extend drugs testing," he said.
Guardian: Police to get new drug test powers: Lucy Ward, September 27, 1999
"This money will expand the DNA database as quickly as possible to hold around 3 million sample profiles - close to the level of the criminally active population and five times the current size of the database.
The extra money will double the rate at which criminal profiles are currently added to the database," said home secretary Jack Straw.
The Independent: Straw Urges Local Councils To Use More Curfews, Oct 14
Provision child curfews could be expanded in a bid to encourage local authorities to crack down on young tearaways, it emerged last night.
Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, has written to every local authority urging them to make more use of new orders to stamp out anti-social behaviour and saying he is ready to amend the legislation if that is what it takes to persuade councils to use the as-yet untried curfews.
For its campaign to exploit the electoral register.
"Experian is an information solutions company. We help organisations to use information to reach new customers and to develop successful and long lasting customer relationships.
[...]
Our knowledge lies in the great wealth of information that we maintain about consumers and how they behave, about businesses and how they perform, and about markets and how they are changing.
Experian believes that responsible stewardship of the information entrusted to us is important for developing and maintaining the public trust essential for our continued license to operate.
"Experian has the largest credit reference database in the UK, containing more than 300 million records on the financial history of consumers. More than two-thirds of all personal applications for credit result in an enquiry on the Experian Credit Database. It is imperative, therefore, that our customers benefit from the most up-to-date delivery systems to enable them to speed up their decision-making while improving their confidence in those decisions."
Home Office proposals to limit the commercial use of the Electoral Roll are forecast to cost the consumer credit industry over half a billion pounds, according to a study carried out by Experian[...].
[The] proposal to allow individuals to refuse permission for their entries on the Electoral Roll to be used for any commercial purpose by ticking an 'opt-out' box," said David Coates, director of Experian. "This proposal completely ignores the value of the Electoral Roll to consumers when they apply for credit whether that be a credit card, personal loan, store card, mail order purchase or a loan for a car.
"A further effect will be the cost of lost sales. [...] This will have a knock on effect on retailers, manufacturers, distributors, transport companies -- and, of course, the Government itself will suffer from lower VAT receipts."
Experian is also concerned that the proposals will result in an increase in social exclusion, with up to one million more people finding it difficult, if not impossible, to obtain credit -- at least at competitive rates of interest -- because they don't have sufficient means to verify their identity.
[...]"The result will be that everybody loses -- consumers, especially the most vulnerable in society, the credit industry, manufacturers, retailers and the Government itself -- while nobody benefits."
For its CLASSIC system (Covert Local Area Sensor System for Intrusion Classification) detecting people, vehicles etc in 'dead ground' i.e. refugees coming across mountain areas and borders etc. The system is exported to countries with a proven record of violation of human rights.
According to International Defense Review 6/96:
CLASSIC was originally developed to detect illegal immigrants attempting to enter Hong Kong. A total of more than 1700 systems have been ordered by 31 countries, of which 10 are NATO members (including Canada, Portugal, Spain and Turkey, in addition to the United Kingdom). Australia recently awarded a follow-on contract as part of its Ninox program.
According to Asian Defence Journal 7/89:
Racal-Comsec has received a major UK MoD order for CLASSIC. This remote sensor system alerts infantry of the presence of hostile forces and is especially effective in 'deadground' cases in which line of sight gear such as radar and thermal imagers are ineffective. CLASSIC perceives, categorises and remotely presents 'target' data on personnel, wheeled and tracked vehicles. Tests have shown that CLASSIC is very capable of differentiating in its target categorization, with low risk of false alarm.
Other RACAL products, from STOA Report
... Vehicle Recognition Systems have been developed which can identify a car number plate then track the car around a city using a computerised geographic information system. Such systems are now commercially available, for example, the Talon system introduced in 1994 by UK company Racal at a price of £2000 per unit. The system is trained to recognise number plates based on neural network technology developed by Cambridge Neurodynamics, and can see both night and day. Initially it has been used for traffic monitoring but its function has been adapted in recent years to cover security surveillance and has been incorporated in the "ring of steel" around London. The system can then record all the vehicles that entered or left the cordon on a particular day.
For a litany of privacy violations reaching back more than twenty years.
For his work on the NSA and ECHELON, and particularly for his EC report.
Statewatch
monitoring the state and civil liberties in the European Union
For his tireless work with Statewatch, and in particular for his work on ILETS and the EU/FBI agreements.
For their ground breaking writing and research into the CCTV industry. Their two books "Surveillance, Closed Circuit Television and Social Control", and "The Maximum Surveillance Society" have opened up the entire area to scrutiny, and it is doubtful whether there would be such public debate without this work.
For his work on the vast privacy implications of interactive and digital television. David has worked single-handedly for three years on this subject, and has opened up this crucial area. His booklet "Spy TV", released earlier this year, demonstrated the enormous implications of the new medium. His new book - a very thoughtful and somewhat terrifying tome - will be released later this year.
For her work on medical privacy. As chief of ethics for the BMA for five years, she put privacy at the head of the medical agenda, and made significant inroads. Since leaving the BMA she has continued her work in this area.
Last updated October 18, 1999.
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