All 1 Debates between Andy Slaughter and Lord Watson of Wyre Forest

Mon 5th Mar 2018
Data Protection Bill [Lords]
Commons Chamber

Money resolution: House of Commons & Programme motion: House of Commons

Data Protection Bill [Lords]

Debate between Andy Slaughter and Lord Watson of Wyre Forest
Money resolution: House of Commons & Programme motion: House of Commons
Monday 5th March 2018

(6 years, 9 months ago)

Commons Chamber
Read Full debate Data Protection Act 2018 View all Data Protection Act 2018 Debates Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts Amendment Paper: HL Bill 77-I Marshalled list for Third Reading (PDF, 71KB) - (16 Jan 2018)
Lord Watson of Wyre Forest Portrait Tom Watson
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The Secretary of State is obviously living in the analogue age if he thinks that he can accept a coupon from The Sun but ignore 200,000 citizens expressing their concern about the inquiry.

I have only one question for the Secretary of State. Will the Government be able to detail what they will do if evidence of wrongdoing is revealed, in particular if editors misled or were partial in their evidence to the original inquiry? We still need Leveson 2, and Sir Brian agrees.

Andy Slaughter Portrait Andy Slaughter
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My hon. Friend is making excellent work of exposing the Government on this point, but things go a stage further than this. Abandoning Leveson against the wishes of Lord Leveson is a constitutional provocation, because it puts party interest above due process. If that is going to happen with one inquiry, why will it not happen with Grenfell or contaminated blood? What will stop the Government doing things that are in their own interests, not those of victims?

Lord Watson of Wyre Forest Portrait Tom Watson
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My hon. Friend makes an important and fair point that I hope the analogue Minister will reflect on.

Rather than protecting the public from the abuse of their data, committed by or on behalf of newspaper publishers, the Government have capitulated to the media. In his letter, Sir Brian said that

“the press is in a unique position because there is no other… body in a position to hold the very real exercise of power by the press to account and to expose its wrongdoing to the public”

In short, the press has no predators. As this Bill makes its way into law, we will be voting to redress that imbalance and to keep our promises.