Draft Data Protection Act 2018 (Amendment of Schedule 2 Exemptions) Regulations 2024

Alex Norris Excerpts

Wednesday 28th February 2024 General Committees

[Alex Norris (Nottingham North) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Vaz. This statutory instrument comes at the end of what might be described as a more than five-year saga over the compatibility, or lack thereof, of the immigration exemption, as set out in the Data Protection Act 2018, with the UK General Data Protection Regulation enacted during the Brexit transition. This particular SI, as the Minister has explained, was necessary following the Court of Appeal’s decision late last year, which required that greater specificity with regard to safeguards related to the immigration exemption be incorporated into legislation as opposed to guidance. As such, we of course support the SI and will not oppose its passage today.

The Minister’s predecessors created the problem when they created the exemption regarding subject access, which usually would be routinely available to individuals under British, and previously European, data protection laws. Such a significant change—and the Minister made an important case for why that divergence from usual practice is important for the operation of our immigration system—was of course going to need clearer definitions, so that members of the public requesting information and those who respond to such requests on behalf of the Government had clarity about when and where that exemption applied. The absence of such clarity, which the courts ruled had to be set out in statute, is what has brought us here today, but, as I say, we will support the statutory instrument.

The Home Office has contested this over the years, so will the Minister say what costs have been involved in taking through those long court cases? Similarly, and most crucially, paragraph 7.1 of the explanatory memorandum says the Home Office consulted the litigants, namely the Open Rights Group and the3million, as well as others, on the degree to which this SI meets the concerns that led to that legal action in the first place. The memorandum also notes that no changes happened as a result of the consultation.

The Minister has given us helpful clarity on the ICO’s views, but based on those conversations, is he certain that we have now seen the end of the legal proceedings, that this is the settled position of the Government, that the campaigners are broadly happy with it and that we will not be back in court? I know that the Minister, by nature and instincts, will not want to mess around and will want to get this resolved, so I guess I am asking whether he is certain that these regulations have resolved that issue.