Councils should be banned from selling edited versions of the electoral rolls, a report on the use of personal information has said.

The government-commissioned report said allowing voters' details to be sold to commercial firms sent a "poor message".

It also said people should have a right to know who firms shared their details with and firms which deliberately broke privacy rules should face large fines.

The government said it agreed measures needed to be taken to increase trust.

The review, headed up by Information Commissioner Richard Thomas and Wellcome Trust director Dr Mark Walport, was commissioned a week before HM Revenue and Customs lost two discs containing personal details of 25 million people.