Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner until 2009, argued that jail time for lawyers who hack should be put into practice as a necessary measure, reports The Times.
The comments were made amid widespread reports in the British media that phone hacking and other illegal information gathering was mostly committed on behalf of law firms, telecom companies and insurers.

Criminal Offence

The Commons Home Affairs Committee has plans today to decide on how to deal with the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca) over suggestions that it knew about illegal activity in 2008 but did not intervene, according to the report.
Mr Thomas said that whether or not these companies knew that these actions were a criminal offence, they should still face penalties. The Data Protection Act currently imposes fines of £5000.
Divorce lawyers, however, argued yesterday that this practice of hacking was never routine.