UK: Privacy legislation shrugged off as ‘pointless’

A standalone privacy law won’t make “the blindest bit of difference”, according to one of the country’s top media lawyers.

The statement follows remarks by Liberal Democrat peer and justice minister Lord McNally that there was “general consensus” that a new piece of legislation should be brought in to “clarify some of the more dangerous aspects” of current privacy case law.

But Rod Christie-Miller, chief executive and senior partner at Schillings, said: “It does not require legislation. All legislation will do is just codify what exists already, that there has got to be a balance between right to privacy and right to freedom of expression under articles 8 and 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights.”