Leveson inquiry: Richard Thomas

Richard Thomas The former Information Commissioner, who stepped down in June 2009, was the author of two reports, What Price Privacy and What Price Privacy Now, in 2006. They highlighted the illegal trade in confidential information, and uncovered the unethical practices of some private investigators who served a market which paid handsomely for sensitive data. One investigator, Steve Whittamore, counted nearly all the national newspapers amongst his clients, and journalists at the Daily Mail used his services most often. The report went virtually unreported by most of Fleet Street. Thomas was focused primarily on the use of investigators by the insurance sector and other big companies, and the growth of a cottage industry whose practitioners were punished by tiny fines on the rare occasions they were prosecuted. But the discovery that newspapers were using Whittamore may prove to be his legacy.