Data Protection and Digital Information (No. 2) Bill (Fifth sitting)

Damian Collins Excerpts

Committee stage
Thursday 18th May 2023 Public Bill Committees

[Sir John Whittingdale]

Clause 43 is a technical measure that creates a presumption that our data protection laws should not be overridden by future laws that relate to the processing of personal data, but it respects parliamentary sovereignty by ensuring that Parliament can depart from this presumption in particular cases if it deems it appropriate to do so. For example, if new legislation permitted or required an organisation to share personal data with another for a particular purpose, the default position in the absence of any specific indication to the contrary would be that the data protection legislation would apply to the new arrangement.

[Damian Collins (Folkestone and Hythe) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend confirm that the provision will also apply with trade agreements? Certainly in the early stages of the negotiations for a UK-US trade agreement, the United States Government sought to include various provisions relating to tech policy. In such a scenario, would this legislation take precedence above anything written into a trade agreement?

[Sir John Whittingdale]

That would certainly be my interpretation. I do not see that a trade agreement could possibly overturn an Act of Parliament unless Parliament specifically sets out that it intends that that should be the case. This is a general protection, essentially saying that in all future cases data protection legislation applies unless Parliament specifically indicates that that should not be the case.

Until now, ensuring that any new data protection measures are read consistently with the data protection legislation has relied either on inclusion of express provision to that effect in new data processing measures, or on general rules of interpretation. There are risks to that situation. Including relevant provisions in each and every new data processing provision is onerous and could be inadvertently omitted. General rules of interpretation can be open to different interpretations by courts, particularly in the light of legal challenges following our exit from the European Union. This can create the potential for legal uncertainty and as a result could lead to a less effective and comprehensive data protection legislative framework.

Clause 43 creates a presumption that any future legislation permitting the processing of personal data will be subject to the key requirements of the UK’s data protection legislation unless clear provisions are made to the contrary. This is a technical but necessary measure and I commend it to the Committee.