Digital Economy Bill

Baroness Hollins Excerpts

2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords
Tuesday 13th December 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hollins (CB)]

My Lords, there are three areas of particular interest for me in this very wide-ranging Bill. The first is the sharing of sensitive health information. I remind noble Lords of my membership of the medical profession and that I am a past president of the British Medical Association.

The BMA believes the Bill should be amended to ensure that identifiable healthcare information is excluded from the entire scope of the Bill’s information disclosure powers. This is imperative if patients are to have trust in the confidential nature of the health service and feel confident in sharing sensitive information with healthcare professionals. The BMA recognises, and is supportive of, the many benefits in using healthcare data appropriately, such as for medical research and health service planning purposes, but this must not be achieved at the cost of confidentiality and must be in line with patient expectations about how their confidential information is handled.

I am therefore seeking clarification on two issues. First, the Bill sets out the need to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 but overrules the common-law duty of confidentiality. It states:

“A disclosure under section 30, 31 or 32 does not breach … any obligation of confidence owed by the person making the disclosure”.

Compliance with the DPA alone does not offer adequate protections for the confidential nature of healthcare information, and the Bill as drafted could seriously undermine medical confidentiality. Why does the Bill not maintain the existing common-law duty of medical confidentiality?

Secondly, the treatment of sensitive health data under Clause 30’s powers is inconsistent with the Government’s own amendment to Clause 57’s powers in the other place. That amendment will uphold the existing protection for sharing healthcare data for research purposes. The Government said that a similar amendment to Clause 30 is not possible, because health is a devolved issue, but no justification has been provided for why Clauses 30 and 57 are being treated differently in this regard. Why is medical confidentiality not protected consistently throughout the Bill? It will be important for the Bill to be amended or clarified to provide adequate guarantees that all current protections of confidentiality will be upheld.

My second area of interest in the Bill concerns measures to make the internet a safer place for children and vulnerable adults. A number of noble Lords have already spoken about this. The NSPCC has written a very powerful briefing, reminding us that the internet is the place where children go to have fun and to learn. It calls on us to recognise the richness of children’s lives and how they deploy, use and interact with technology as a means of learning, empowerment, self-expression and connecting with others. But there are also real benefits to children and young people with learning disabilities and autism in using the internet to support learning and social interaction. Increasingly, the internet caters for these young people through using accessible design and simplified language, as well as instantly available video clips. However, with access to technology comes the potential for cyberbullying, online grooming and risk of exposure to inappropriate content. Children and young people cite viewing violent and harmful content as their second most common concern in the online world. It is important to remember that pornographic sites are not the only challenge—there are also sites promoting violence, drug use, self-harm and gambling.

This is a risk for all children and young people using the internet but the risk can be more profound for young people with a learning disability as a result of their increased vulnerability, a common tendency towards obsessional or compulsive behaviour and their social naivety. The Anti-Bullying Alliance found that pupils with special educational needs were 12% more likely to have experienced cyberbullying than their peers. Mencap, Ambitious about Autism and Cerebra were sufficiently concerned last year to publish Learning Disabilities, Autism and Internet Safety: A Parent’s Guide, which contains tips for parents on how to support their children to use the internet safely.

Many of these concerns and aspirations also apply to vulnerable adults who are at risk from the same types of intrusive and harmful content. I refer not just to people with developmental learning disabilities but to those who are experiencing a mental health crisis and for whom such material can only add to their troubles. What plans do the Government have to ensure that such vulnerable adults are also protected through the measures in the Bill?

The continued provision of the default-on adult content filtering regime is very important, including in relation to public wi-fi. While filters are not completely watertight, they will help to make the internet safer for many children and, indeed, vulnerable adults. So a great deal hangs on the promised government adult content filtering amendment, which I look forward to seeing in Committee.

The NSPCC is also calling for a statutory code of practice, with a set of minimum standards to keep children safe online. These minimum standards would set out responsibilities for anyone developing or hosting online content or services to ensure that there is parity of protection for children between the offline and online worlds.

Finally, I will speak about the possibilities offered in the Bill to protect the public from some of the harm caused by a media which refuse to regulate themselves adequately, despite cross-parliamentary acceptance of the Leveson inquiry recommendations. This country has managed broadcast regulation rather well, and Ofcom has a good track record. We do not hear of the Government being bullied by broadcast licence holders, or holding secret meetings in London hotels with ITV’s owners, or of the BBC Director-General entering No. 10 Downing Street through the back door for a quiet chat with the Prime Minister. But the same cannot be said of press regulation. This House knows the history of decades of failed press regulation—Leveson described it as a “pattern of cosmetic reform”.

Since Leveson part 1 reported, there has been an unprecedented propaganda war by the large newspaper companies opposing its moderate recommendations. We have witnessed a disgraceful retreat by the Government, reneging on promise after promise made to victims, the public and Parliament, including a willingness to abandon the incentives for the royal charter scheme that were enacted by Parliament, and a desire to cancel part 2 of the inquiry into the newspapers’ corporate cover-up and possible police corruption.

Lord Justice Leveson was alive to that happening, and warned of it in his report. He said that previous press promises to reform,

“have often not been followed through with meaningful action”.

Crucially, he said that if the press reject this final opportunity for voluntary, independent self-regulation, Parliament must act to protect the public interest and legislate. He said,

“if some or all of the industry are not willing to participate in effective independent regulation, my own concluded view is to reject the notion that they should escape regulation altogether. I cannot, and will not, recommend another last chance saloon for the press”.

I hope that this House will take up the challenge in the Bill. As Lord Justice Leveson pointed out, the news media move their position only when faced with the prospect of legislation. As Leveson found in his inquiry:

“Ultimately, the one incentive that we have heard about that has been demonstrated to be effective is the realistic threat of press standards legislation if an adequate voluntary body with full coverage is not forthcoming”.

I am still exploring what amendments will be possible, but noble Lords will recall that I was encouraged by Ministers to amend this Bill, rather than the Investigatory Powers Bill, despite the huge support in this Chamber for a mechanism to implement outstanding Leveson recommendations. I have asked Hacked Off to assist me with briefings on this matter.