asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether adherence to the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998, via the expedient of ensuring that monitoring of employees' communications is in proportion to the business benefits that an organisation could hope to achieve by it, will conflict with the purposes of the Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice) Regulations. [HL390]

No. The Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice) (Interception of Communications) Regulations 2000 establish the circumstances where a business can intercept communications without infringing the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. This does not affect, and was never intended to affect, the application of the Data Protection Act 1998, which ensures, among other things, that personal data is not collected, used or otherwise processed where there is no business or other legal obligation to do so or vital interests to be protected.