A Call for Evidence is a consultation paper containing proposals for change and new policies, which invites the public to comment within a given time period. The Ministry of Justice has recently announced two such consultations on European Commission initiatives.

The first seeks views on the EC’s Green Paper on potential changes to contract law. Published on 1 July, it sets out a number of proposals for progressing towards a European Contract Law for consumers and businesses. The Green Paper is based on the premise that the variety and divergence of contract laws operating in each of the EU Member States hinders the smooth operation of internal markets and makes dispute resolution across EU borders difficult. It looks at whether such situations require a European Union level response and details seven possible approaches ranging from maintaining the status quo through to the creation of a mandatory common code of contract law.

Justice Minister Lord McNally said: “The Government wants to hear views to ascertain whether changes to cross-border contract law are needed and to assess what the impact of each of the European Commission’s options will be. It is important that the Government provides a well-evidenced response to the European Commission and I encourage all those with an interest to share their views.” Closing date for contributions is 26 November 2010. The full text of the EC Green Paper can be found at:-

http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/news/consulting_public/news_consulting_0052_en.htm

The second Call for Evidence seeks evidence about how the European Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC and the Data Protection Act 1998 are working, and their impact on individuals and organisations.

The Directive was conceived and negotiated during the early 1990s. This was at a time when computer technology was primitive by today’s standards and the internet was in its early stages. Since the Directive came into force, the last fifteen years have seen great advancement in technology, leading to more sophisticated ways of conducting businesses. The purpose of the Call for Evidence is to seek information about areas of the Directive (and therefore the DPA 1998) that may be out of date or could be improved, and also those areas that are working well and should be retained. With the growth of cross-border direct marketing and e-commerce, increasing numbers of marketers are gathering, processing and managing the personal data of individuals from across Europe and elsewhere. All of this increases opportunities for personal data originating in one country to be processed in another. And, with these advantages, there are also a number of risks, such as the potential to misuse personal data overseas in countries with less robust legal frameworks, causing substantial damage.

At the same time as launching this Call for Evidence, the Government has published a provisional post implementation review impact assessment of the Data Protection Act 1998, on which MoJ would also welcome comments. The full text of this review can be found at:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/docs/post-implementation-review-impact-assessment-2010.pdf

Closing date for substantive contributions is 6 October 2010, and the full text of the Call for Evidence can be found at:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/docs/dpa-call-evidence-02-07-2010.pdf