Oral Answers to Questions

John Whittingdale Excerpts

Thursday 10th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Martyn Day (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (SNP)]

What recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the retention of (a) the GDPR and (b) other EU regulations on data protection after the transition period.

[The Minister for Media and Data (Mr John Whittingdale)]

The general data protection regulation regime will be retained in domestic law after the transition period through the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. The UK remains committed to maintaining high data protection standards now and in the future.

[Martyn Day [V]]

The EU has been a world leader when it comes to the protection of citizens’ digital rights. This is evidenced by the large number of countries, such as South Korea, Japan and Brazil, that sought to emulate its groundbreaking GDPR policy. As the end of the transition period looms, how will the UK Government ensure that digital rights law not only lives up to the EU’s high standards but exceeds them?

[Mr Whittingdale]

The hon. Gentleman is right to say that the GDPR has ensured that we have high standards and, as I say, we are absolutely committed to maintaining them. We have no intention of diverging substantially from GDPR, but obviously we will be looking to see whether there are ways in which we can improve our regime while maintaining those high standards.

[John Nicolson (Ochil and South Perthshire) (SNP) [V]]

The independent Information Commissioner recently revealed that the Conservative party had racially and religiously profiled 10 million voters at the last election. I was shocked to learn that it did this by buying data that

“identified a person’s…ethnic origin and religion based on their first and last name.”

Can the Minister explain to the House why his party does this?

[Mr Whittingdale]

As I recall, the Information Commissioner examined the practices of all political parties and made comments against all of them. However, it did not find that any breaches of the law had occurred.

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

What recent steps his Department has taken to tackle the proliferation of (a) misinformation and (b) disinformation online.