Data (Use and Access) Bill [HL]

Debate between Viscount Camrose and Lord Markham

Committee stage
Tuesday 3rd December 2024 Grand Committee

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

My Lords, I start by reflecting on the strangeness of the situation—to me, anyway. Here we all are again, in slightly different seats but with a largely similar Bill. As I said at Second Reading, we welcome this important Bill; it is absolutely crucial to get our data economy right. We have a number of amendments to the Bill, a great many of which are probing. The overall theme of our amendments is how to make the Bill maximally effective at the important job that it sets out to do.

The terminology of data law is well understood. Lawmakers, lawyers, businesses and data subjects are all to some extent familiar with the terminology. A “controller” means

“the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data”.

A “processor” means

“a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller”.

We are all familiar with those terms.

In this Bill, new terms are introduced, named “data holder” and “trader”. A data holder, in relation to customer data or business data of a trader is the trader, or

“a person who, in the course of a business, processes the data”.

How is that materially different from a processor? A trader is described as a person who supplies or provides

“goods, services or digital content”

in the course of business, whether personally, through someone acting in the trader’s name, or on the trader’s behalf. Again, I ask how that is different from a controller.

While I grant that this may seem a very small point in a very large Bill, already data regulations are relatively poorly understood and difficult to follow. Therefore, surely there is no real need to make them more complex by introducing overlapping terms just for this one section of the Bill. As I explained in our explanatory note, this is a probing amendment, and I hope the Minister will be able to explain why these terms are materially different from the existing terms, why they are necessary and so on. If so, I would of course be happy to withdraw my amendment. I beg to move.

[Lord Markham (Con)]

Just to follow on from that, I very much support my noble friend’s words. The only reason I can see why you would introduce new definitions is that there are new responsibilities that are different, and you would want people to be aware of the new rules that have been placed on them. I will be interested to hear the Minister’s answer. If that is the case, we can set that out and understand whether the differences are so big that you need a whole new category, as my noble friend said.

Having run lots of small businesses myself, I am aware that, with every new definition that you add, you add a whole new set of rules and complications. As a business owner, how am I going to find out what applies to me and how I am to be responsible? The terms trader, controller, data holder and processor all sound fairly similar, so how will I understand what applies to me and what does not? To the other point that my noble friend made, the more confusing it gets, the less likelihood there is that people will understand the process.

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[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

My Lords, Amendment 47 is in another slightly peculiar group, but we will persevere. It aims to bolster the cybersecurity framework for digital verification services providers. Needless to say, as we continue to advance in the digital age, it is vital that our online systems, especially those handling sensitive information, are protected against ever-evolving cyberthreats. As DVSs gain in currency as they gain in usage, the incentive for cyberattackers to attack them and try to take advantage grows. They need to be protected.

The proposed amendment therefore mandates the creation and regular review of cybersecurity rules for all DVS providers. These rules are designed to ensure that services involved in verifying identities and other critical data maintain the highest standards of protection, resilience and trustworthiness consonant with their importance and the sensitivity of any breaches of that data.

We could hardly be more aware that we live in an increasingly digital world where almost every aspect of our lives is connected online. Digital verification services play a key role in this landscape, and that role is going to increase. They are used by individuals and organisations to confirm identities, authenticate transactions and verify data. These services underpin critical areas, such as banking, healthcare and public services, where security is paramount. However, as the cyberthreat landscape becomes more sophisticated, so does the need for robust security measures to protect these services. Hackers and malicious actors are continuously developing new ways to exploit vulnerabilities in digital systems. This puts personal data, business operations and even national security at risk.

A security breach in a digital verification system could have devastating consequences not only for the immediate victims but for the reputation and integrity of the service providers. That is why we on these Benches feel that the proposed amendment is absolutely critical. It would ensure that all DVS providers are held to a high, standardised set of cybersecurity practices. This would not only reduce the risk of cyberthreats but build greater public trust in the safety and reliability of those services and, therefore, enhance their uptake.

One of the key aspects of the amendment is the requirement for the cybersecurity rules to be reviewed annually. This is especially important in the context of the rapid evolution of the cyberthreats that we face. Technologies, attack methods and vulnerabilities are constantly changing, and what is secure today may not be secure tomorrow. By reviewing the cyber rules every year, we will ensure that they remain current and effective in protecting against the latest threats. I beg to move.

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I support that. I completely agree with all the points that the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, made on the previous groupings, but the one that we all agree is absolutely vital is the one just brought up by my noble friend. Coming from the private sector, I am all in favour of a market—I think that it is the right way to go—but standards within that are equally vital.

I come at this issue having had the misfortune of having to manage the cyberattack that we all recall happening against our diagnostic services in hospitals last summer. We found that the weakest link there was through the private sector supplier to that system, and it became clear that the health service—or cybersecurity, or whoever it was—had not done enough to make sure that those standards were set, published and adhered to effectively.

With that in mind, and trying to learn the lessons from it, I think that this clause is vital in terms of its intent, but it will be valuable only if it is updated on a frequent basis. In terms of everything that we have spoken about today, and on this issue in particular, I feel that that point is probably the most important. Although everything that we are trying to do is a massive advance in terms of trying to get the data economy to work even better, I cannot emphasise enough how worrying that attack on our hospitals last summer was at the time.

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

I thank both noble Lords for raising this; I absolutely concur with them on how important it is. In fact, I remember going to see the noble Viscount, Lord Camrose, when he was in his other role, to talk about exactly this issue: whether the digital verification services were going to be robust enough against cyberattacks.

I pray in aid the noble Lord, Lord Arbuthnot, and the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Jones, who both felt that the new Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will provide some underpinning for all of this, because our Government take this issue very seriously. As the Committee can imagine, we get regular advice from the security services about what is going on and what we need to do to head it off. Yes, it is a difficult issue, but we are doing everything we can to make sure that our data is safe; that is fundamental.

Amendment 47 would require the Secretary of State to prepare and publish rules on cybersecurity for providers to follow. The existing trust framework includes rules on cybersecurity, against which organisations will be certified. Specifically, providers will be able to prove either that they meet the internationally recognised information security standards or that they have a security management system that matches the criteria set out in the trust framework.

I assure noble Lords that the Information Commissioner’s Office, the National Cyber Security Centre and other privacy stakeholders have contributed to the development of the trust framework. This includes meeting international best practice around encryption and cryptology techniques. I will happily write to noble Lords to reassure them further by detailing the range of protections already in place. Alternatively, if noble Lords here today would benefit from an official technical briefing on the trust framework, we would be delighted to set up such a meeting because it is important that we all feel content that this will be a robust system, for exactly the reasons that the noble Lord, Lord Markham, explained. We are absolutely on your Lordships’ side and on the case on all this; if it would be helpful to have a meeting, we will certainly do that.

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[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

We will see, but such a demonstration would certainly ease any perfectly reasonable concerns that might emerge. To put it in a more colourful way, this is Netflix in the age of Blockbuster Video.

The slightly different Amendments 193, 194 and 195 clarify that these information standards should explicitly apply to IT providers involved in the processing of data within primary as well as secondary care, and that the standards must extend to existing contracts with providers, not just new agreements formed after this Act. I understand the point of these amendments but I am slightly concerned about how the retroactivity would affect existing contractual agreements. I am also slightly concerned about the wish to hard-code certain conditions into rules that function best the more they are principles-based and the less they are specifically related to particular areas of technology. That said, I think I am persuadable on it, but I have not yet made that leap.

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I am not going to say much except to try to persuade my noble friend. I am absolutely with the intent of what the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, is trying to do here and I understand the massive benefits that can be gained from it.