Draft Electronic Communications (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019

Chris Elmore Excerpts

Tuesday 30th April 2019 General Committees

[Chris Elmore (Ogmore) (Lab)]

I think it is fair to say that this is a surprise outing for the whole Committee—especially me.

I have a series of questions for the Minister, and I would be very grateful if she answered them as fully as she can. The SI removes reciprocal arrangements for competent national authorities to notify each other where a breach affects subscribers or individuals in other member states. The explanatory memorandum says:

“it is anticipated that the Information Commissioner will cooperate with EEA authorities”.

Can the Minister confirm that?

The SI removes some powers that the European Commission has at the moment, rather than transferring them to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Why have the Government considered it unnecessary to recreate those powers in domestic law? For example, this SI does not recreate the Commission’s power to publish an indicative list of appropriate technical measures to demonstrate any personal data. That personal data would not have been intelligible to a person accessing it without authorisation in the case of a breach. Given that just last month, Facebook was found to have been storing 600 million users’ passwords in plain text format for years, do the Government not think the public have a right to a greater reassurance that their personal data is safe? What steps have they taken?

On that subject, the Government have avoided answering written parliamentary questions asking when they were notified about the breach, how many UK users were affected and whether the Secretary of State was told about the breach when he met Mark Zuckerberg in February. We have submitted freedom of information requests to the Department. Mark Zuckerberg seems to be ignoring Parliament by refusing to come to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, and it seems that he may have failed to mention the huge data breach when he sat opposite the Secretary of State.

The SI takes us out of the European regulators group for audiovisual media services. Of course, if the UK leaves without a deal, we cannot stay in EU groups. What plans have the Government got in place for the desired future relationship between the UK and European audiovisual sectors? For example, if the UK ceases to be party to the AVMS directive, it could become significantly less attractive as a broadcasting hub. Given the importance of the sector to the UK’s economy and cultural reach, will the Minister provide reassurances about the future regulatory relationship between the UK and the European audiovisual sector? What consideration are the Government giving to that?

What plans are the Government putting in place to ensure UK consumers are duly informed about potential increases in the cost of using their mobile devices abroad, so British users do not get stuck with unanticipated fees? Finally, what measures do the Government plan to take to protect the consumer interest and guarantee that charges for calling or texting EU countries from within the UK do not increase?