Digital Government (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2026

Earl Russell Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd September 2026 Grand Committee

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Lloyd of Effra) (Lab)]

My Lords, these regulations make three important amendments to the information sharing powers in Part 5, Chapter 1 of the Digital Economy Act 2017. The core aim of these regulations is to help the Government to support households facing financial hardship, improving access to support for those eligible and ensuring that public services can respond more effectively to people’s needs. Too often, people do not receive the right support because the information needed to identify them is held by different public authorities. Enabling relevant information to be shared safely and legally will help support to reach the right people more quickly and effectively.

On the measure related to the delivery of energy debt relief schemes, Part 5, Chapter 1 of the Digital Economy Act already provides a well-established framework for information sharing to support public service delivery. Under Section 36, specified public bodies can share information with energy suppliers with the intention that the suppliers use the information in connection with a prescribed fuel poverty measure to support households experiencing fuel poverty.

None of the fuel poverty measures currently allows this power to be used to support households with energy debt. These regulations will amend Section 36 to create a new fuel poverty measure that will enable information to be shared between certain public authorities—including the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero—and energy suppliers to enable households eligible for support under an energy debt relief scheme to be identified and to deliver support to them. An example of a scheme that could be facilitated by this change is a proposed debt relief scheme that Ofgem consulted on in winter 2025. While the detailed operational design of the scheme is currently being developed by DESNZ and Ofgem, its ambition is clear: to help eliminate between £500 million and £1 billion of energy debt, remove administrative burdens and deliver meaningful relief to households struggling with energy arrears and financial hardship.

The second measure will amend the Digital Government (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2018 to enable DSIT to rely on the Act’s fuel poverty objective to share information with certain other public authorities for the purpose of assisting people living in fuel poverty. This will support initiatives such as the National Data Library’s kickstarter project, which seeks to bring together cross-government data, including earnings, benefits and energy usage, which will enable government to identify households in fuel poverty and to target energy bill support more effectively. I should note that the draft regulations were laid when responsibility for the relevant government data function sat within DSIT. Following the Written Statement by my noble friend Lady Smith of Basildon on 21 July, this function is being transferred to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The regulations will be made as currently drafted and any necessary amendments to reflect the transfer of functions will be made separately. This does not affect the policy intent or operation of the measure.

The third technical measure will also amend the 2018 regulations to expressly add DESNZ to the fuel poverty objective. The relevant function was transferred to DESNZ when it was created in 2023 but the regulations were not consequentially amended at that time. This measure will not have any immediate operational impact, but we are taking the opportunity to make the change in the interests of legal certainty.

More broadly, these measures reflect the Government’s commitment to make better use of data to improve public service delivery. The information sharing is with a clear public purpose: helping households struggling with energy debt, while supporting action to tackle fuel poverty and outcomes for citizens.

The Government have undertaken appropriate engagement on each of the three measures. For the energy debt relief scheme measure, a public consultation was conducted. Respondents were overwhelmingly supportive of the proposal, recognising the important role that information sharing can play in identifying eligible households and delivering targeted support to those struggling with energy debt. To add DSIT and DESNZ to the list of public authorities connected with the fuel poverty objective measure, the Government consulted the specific consultees, as required by Section 44 of the Digital Economy Act—namely, the Information Commissioner’s Office, the devolved Governments and HMRC. Consultees were supportive of the proposal and content for it to proceed.

Furthermore, I also wish to reassure noble Lords that robust safeguards will continue to apply to all information sharing undertaken under these powers. Part 5, Chapter 1, of the Digital Economy Act contains a strong framework for governing the sharing of data. The powers in Chapter 1 permit information to be shared only by a limited number of bodies, mostly public authorities, and only for the purposes specified in the Act. There are also statutory restrictions on the re-use and onward disclosure of information received under the powers in Chapter 1.

As well as this, any public body exercising the data-sharing powers must adhere to existing data protection legislation, namely the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. It must also have regard to the statutory code of practice under the Digital Economy Act, which emphasises requirements regarding data privacy, security, governance and transparency. The code of practice sets out processes that bodies exercising the powers are expected to follow, including recording information-sharing agreements made under these powers in a publicly available register, providing transparency about how the powers are used. These safeguards help ensure the responsible use of data by allowing information to be shared only where appropriate and subject to robust protections, helping to maintain public trust.

In terms of scrutiny, the regulations were considered by both the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments and the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, neither of which drew them to the special attention of the House, with the latter including an information paragraph only in its report.

These regulations will enable better use of information to help households facing energy-related hardship. They will allow for information to be shared to identify eligible households, improve the delivery of targeted assistance and support collaboration between public authorities. In doing so, they will help ensure that support reaches those who need it most, while upholding the highest standards of privacy, with information handled lawfully, responsibly and securely.

[Earl Russell (LD)]

My Lords, more than 3 million customers are now in energy debt or arrears, owing a total of around £6 billion, with an average debt of approximately £1,800 per household. No household should be trapped indefinitely by energy debt accumulated during an exponential national crisis. Non-targeted support, as we have seen in the past, has been prohibitively expensive and not terribly efficient. I have called for better information sharing to enable the better use of targeted support by government. The purpose of these regulations is therefore one that we support. They amend the Digital Economy Act 2017 to enable data sharing for Ofgem’s purposes of a proposed debt-relief scheme.

The Government estimate that this scheme could clear between £500 million and £1 billion of outstanding energy debt. This is a significant intervention, with the potential to help many households directly. It should reduce the burden of uncoverable debt that is ultimately socialised across all customers’ bills. We welcome the role of Ofgem. The principle of the common framework is sound. We further recognise that part of this instrument corrects an earlier administrative error. The addition of DESNZ is a necessary one. Adding DSIT may also be reasonable if it allows the Government to co-ordinate support more effectively.

These regulations authorise an important extension of data sharing. However, they must be fair, proportionate and accountable, and I note the assurances that the Minister has given. The first phase will target people receiving means-tested benefits, subject to other eligibility and engagement criteria. That may be administratively convenient, but it is not a true test of vulnerability. There are obviously, as the Minister knows, people just above the benefit threshold who still struggle to pay their energy bill, and there are those who are entitled to support but do not claim. There are older people, disabled people, carers and people and people with fluctuating incomes, and there are households which are not digitally confident or which have not been able, for numerous reasons, to claim in the past. We must ensure that the people who most need help are not excluded because they are the least able to complete administrative processes.

I ask the Minister: what is meant by engagement criteria within the SI? Does it mean customers must actively respond to gain this relief? If that is the case, it is still a serious obstacle to people being able to claim these benefits. The scheme should provide accessible routes through telephone and post, advice agencies, trusted intermediaries or, better still, an automated identification process, which I think is where this is ultimately going. Perhaps the Minister could say just a word on that. Where households are plainly eligible, the presumption should be that relief is delivered automatically wherever possible.

The Minister talked about limited and specifically defined information, but could she just say what that means in practice? I think she has been clear on that, but could she confirm that it does not mean it will be shared with any further agencies and will not be sent to debt collectors, or for credit scoring or marketing? The information should be collected solely for the purposes here and overseen by the Information Commissioner. These safeguards are really important, particularly in light of the Government’s wider ambition to link household data to further aims for targeted support.

The Explanatory Memorandum says that the Government will conduct an expanded annual assessment, but these regulations do not contain a statutory review clause. Given the sensitivity of the information involved and the scale of the proposed debt relief, is that felt to be sufficient? Regular information on the number of eligible households, the value of the debt cancelled, complaints, corrections, exclusions and any data breaches should be publicly available. We should know whether people who change supplier are protected and continue to receive the benefits that they are entitled to through that process.

It would also be useful if the Government published the operational rules. These regulations create a legal gateway, but many of the questions that matter most to households will be answered in the Ofgem requirements and the administrative guidance. I also feel that these documents should be available to both Parliament and the public.

These regulations address a genuine problem, and I welcome them. I have personally called for greater data sharing so that we can target this support, but that alone is not the sole solution to the problem. I will ask just one question about timing. Obviously, the cap rises by 4% on 1 October, and we are coming into winter. Is it expected that once this SI is passed, this process will move swiftly? Can the Minister give me some indication whether that will happen at all this winter for energy bill payers?

To conclude, targeted debt relief is necessary, but alone it is not sufficient. We still need further and broader work across government to bring down energy bills, to take levies off those bills and to fundamentally reform the energy markets, but we welcome these regulations as a step in the right direction. They do need some careful and firm controls of the data. I think the Information Commissioner has been clear, and we generally welcome these regulations.

[The Earl of Effingham (Con)]

My Lords, these regulations relate to the Digital Economy Act 2017, which enables data sharing between public authorities and energy suppliers. The regulations will permit the sharing of information to support the delivery of a debt relief scheme by allowing specified persons to disclose information to energy suppliers for the reduction or cancellation of customers’ debt. The Government have committed to delivering targeted support for households most affected by rising energy costs.

The state must help those in need—that is absolutely right—but the reality is that this commitment will do nothing to address the root cause of rising energy costs, which continue to appreciate in part by trying to meet impossible net-zero targets. The most recent contracts for difference allocation rounds held by the Government saw maximum strike prices for offshore wind of £113 per megawatt hour. That is higher than those agreed in previous allocation rounds, higher than the average cost of electricity in the years before and the highest prices in a decade. His Majesty’s loyal Opposition have undertaken the work to tackle the root causes of high energy costs, proposing a cheap power plan to maximise extraction of our own oil and gas resources in the North Sea and to scrap the carbon tax on electricity generation from gas and the renewables obligation subsidy scheme, as well as removing VAT on domestic energy bills. These are constructive proposals endorsed by experts to help tackle the root causes of the cost of living crisis.

These regulations add the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to the list of specified persons that may share information. It may help your Lordships’ House if the Minister will clarify why these regulations make provision to share information with DSIT when the Government have, as far as we understand, abolished and dismantled that department. If these regulations help those in need, that is a good thing, but they are short-term and, as the noble Earl, Lord Russell, quite rightly said, alone they are not sufficient. The only sustainable long-term solution is the one proposed by His Majesty’s loyal Opposition that I briefly outlined.