Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what privacy safeguards exist to prevent identifiable peoples' sequenced DNA being passed to third parties when companies which offer family or other research services to members of the public (a) are sold and (b) go into liquidation; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing stronger safeguards.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) already require organisations to process personal data lawfully, fairly, transparently and securely, unless certain limited exemptions apply. Organisations are also required to meet additional conditions and safeguards when processing ‘special category’ data, or data that is more sensitive, such as DNA data.
The UK’s data protection legislation does not automatically prohibit the selling or sharing of personal data with third parties. Instead, it sets out a framework within which data sharing may safely take place.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s Data Protection Regulator, has published a statutory Code of Practice on data sharing which contains practical guidance for organisations on how to share data fairly and lawfully, available at: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/data-sharing/data-sharing-a-code-of-practice/.
The ICO has also published guidance to help organisations processing special category data, available at: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/lawful-basis/a-guide-to-lawful-basis/special-category-data/.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will take steps to ensure (a) social media companies and (b) website providers that have been found to have hosted illegal content viewed by people that have subsequently committed serious crimes face financial sanctions.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Online Safety Act 2023 places duties on social media companies and search services. These include duties to tackle illegal content on their services. These services will need to put systems and processes in place to reduce the risk that users post this illegal content. They will also need to take it down where it does appear. If companies fail to comply with any of these duties, Ofcom has a range of strong enforcement powers, including issuing fines and applying to the court to initiate business disruption measures.