Andrew Turner, the Island’s MP, has refused to refer a complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman in respect of a prisoner at HMP Albany who wants to claim compensation for the loss of his personal details by the Home Office. Mr Turner was approached by Swain & Co, a firm of solicitors in Hampshire who say they are acting for over 600 prisoners in connection with the matter and wanted Mr Turner’s support for this to be put forward as a test case. They wanted Mr Turner to sign a form asking the Parliamentary Ombudsman to investigate the loss of a data stick in August last year containing details of the complainant and his offence. Supporting paperwork revealed that they wanted the ombudsman to ‘recommend a payment’ to their client in respect of the ‘fear, inconvenience and risk to his and his family’s safety that has been caused by the Home Office’. The Parliamentary Ombudsman will only investigate matters referred to them by a Member of Parliament.

The papers also disclosed that the matter had already been raised as an internal complaint in the prison, with the Prison and Probation Ombudsman and with the Information Commissioner. The Information Commissioner had fully investigated the incident and found that the Home Office had responded appropriately and investigated the causes of the incident well. The Commissioner decided to take no further action. Swain & Co have also issued Court Proceedings under the Human Rights Act.

Mr Turner said:
“Of course it is regrettable that personal data has gone astray but the Department of Work and Pensions have also lost personal data about a great many law-abiding people and they are not getting taxpayer-funded legal action to sue for damages.

“This man is a convicted sex offender who sexually assaulted his under-age step-daughters. He says he is fearful for his and his family’s safety should the information fall into the wrong hands; well perhaps he ought to have thought about the wider consequences of his actions before he carried out the offences. The solicitor says that the ‘situation can never be resolved for him’ as he will have to ‘live with the fear of the information suddenly being published for the rest of his life’; they don’t go on to say that his victims will have to live with the knowledge of what he has done to them for the rest of theirs.

“In my opinion this whole thing is a scam – he even describes how the anxiety has affected his health but says he hasn’t been to the prison healthcare department because ‘he likes to keep things to himself and handle them in my own way’. He doesn’t say how the financial compensation he is seeking is actually going to correct the supposed damage in any way – just that he thinks he should receive compensation from the taxpayer.

“I am sorry to say that I expect Swain and Co will find an MP somewhere who will sign such a form but I am certainly not going to do so. Goodness knows how much this has cost the taxpayer; I shall be writing to the Home Secretary to ask him. It is a prime example of prisoners having better access to taxpayer-funded legal advice than the rest of us.”

END Contact : Andrew Turner’s office 01983 530808