Data (Use and Access) Bill [HL]

Lord Stevenson of Balmacara Excerpts

Tuesday 19th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a feature of your Lordships’ House that certain topics and Bills within them tend to attract a small and very intense group of persons, who get together to talk a language that is not generally understood by the rest of the world—certainly not by the rest of this House—and get down to business with an enthusiasm and attitude which is very refreshing. I am seeing smiles from the other side of the House. This is not meant to be in any way a single-party point—just a very nice example of the way in which the House can operate.

I have already been struck today, as I am sure have others in the group that I am talking about—who know who they are—by the recognition that we have perhaps been a little narrow in our thinking. A couple of the speeches today have brought a new thought and a new sense of engagement with this particular subject and the others we deal with. We need to be aware of that, and I am very grateful to those noble Lords. In addition, I am grateful to the repeating by the noble Lord, Lord Knight, of the speeches he had to make in 2018 and subsequent dates, and also the wonderfully grumpy speech from the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron. We have also got to take into account what we got wrong on joining the European market—which I certainly look forward to. It is a serious point.

I am also very grateful to my noble friend the Minister for setting out the new Government’s vision for data protection, for her letters—which have been very useful—and for her help in setting up the meeting I had with her officials, which I found very useful indeed. Our Minister has done a really good job in getting the Bill ready so quickly. It is good that some of the more egregious measures included in the previous Bill—particularly the changes on direct marketing during elections and the extensive access to bank account details—have gone. There are indeed some good extras as well.

We have already had some excellent speeches setting out some concerns. I have one major concern about the current Bill and three rather lesser issues which I suspect will need further debate and discussion in Committee. I will cover them quite briefly. My major concern is that, although the Bill has the intention to boost growth and productivity, and also makes a valiant attempt to provide a unified set of rules and regulations on data processing, it may in the process have weakened the protections that we want to see here in the exploitation of personal data. Data, as other noble Lords have said, is of course not just for growth and prosperity. There will be, as we have heard, clear, practical benefits in making data work for the wider social good and for the empowerment of working people. There is huge potential for data to revitalise the public services. Indeed, I liked the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Knight, that data is in some way an asset missing from the balance sheet on many operations, and we need to think carefully about how best we can configure that to make sure that the reality comes to life.

There has been, of course, a huge change. We have moved into the age of AI, but we do not have the Bill in front of us that will deal with that. The GDPR needs a top-to-toe revision so that we can properly regulate data capture, data storage, and how it may be best shared in the public interest. As an example of that, following the Online Safety Act we have a new regulator in Ofcom with the power to regulate technology providers and their algorithmic impacts. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act has given the Competition and Markets Authority new and innovative powers to regulate commercial interests, which we heard about yesterday at an all-party group. However, this Bill has missed the opportunity to strengthen the role of the ICO so we can provide a third leg capable of regulating the use of data in today’s AI-dominated world. This is a gap that we need to think very carefully about.

I hope my noble friend the Minister will acknowledge that there is a long way to go if this legislation is to earn public confidence and if our data protection regime is to work not just for the tech monopolies but for small businesses, consumers, workers and democracy. We must end the confusion, empower the regulators, and in turn empower Parliament.

There are three specific issues, and I will go through them relatively quickly. The first is on Clauses 67 and 68, already referred to, where the Bill brings in wording from Recital 159 of the GDPR—as we inherited it from the EU. This sets out how the processing of personal data for scientific research purposes should be interpreted. The recital is drafted in extraordinarily broad terms, including

“technological development and demonstration, fundamental research, applied research and privately funded research”.

It specifically mentions that:

“Scientific research purposes should also include studies conducted in the public interest in the area of public health”.


The latest ICO guidance, which contains a couple of references to commercial scientific research, says that such research

“can also include research carried out in commercial settings, and technological development, innovation and demonstration”.

However, we lack a definition, and it is rather curious that the definition of research does exist elsewhere in statute in the UK laws. It is necessary in order to fund the research councils, for example. It is also part of the process of the tax code in order to get research benefits and tax benefits for research. So, we have a definition somewhere else, but somehow the Bill avoids that and tries to go down a clarification route of trying to bring forward into the current legislation that which is already the law—according to those who have drafted it—but which is of course so complicated that it cannot be understood. I think the Government’s thinking is to provide researchers with consistency, and they say very firmly that the Bill does not create any new permissions for using or reusing data for research purposes. In my meeting with officials, they were insistent that these clauses are about fine-tuning the data protection framework, making clarifications and small-scale changes but reducing uncertainties.

I agree that it is helpful to have the key provisions—currently buried, as they are, in the recitals—on the face of the Bill, and it may be that the new “reasonableness” test will give researchers greater clarity. Of course, we also retain the requirement that research must be in the public interest. But surely the issue that we need to address is whether the Bill, by incorporating new language and putting in this new “reasonableness” test, will permit changes to how data held by the NHS, including patients’ medical records, could be used and shared. It may be that the broad definition of “scientific research”, which can be “publicly or privately funded” and “commercial or non-commercial” inadvertently waters down consent protections and removes purpose-limitation safeguards. Without wishing to be too alarmist, we need to be satisfied that these changes will not instigate a seismic change in the rules currently governing NHS data.

It is relevant to note that the Government have stated in a separate way an intention to include in the next NHS 10-year plan significant changes as to how patients’ medical records are held and how NHS data is used. Launching a “national conversation” about the plans, the Secretary of State, my right honourable friend Wes Streeting MP, highlighted a desire to introduce electronic health records called “patient passports” and to work “hand in hand” with the private sector to use data to develop new treatments. He acknowledged that these plans would raise concerns about privacy and about how to get the

“best possible deal for the NHS in return”

for private sector access to NHS data. The details of this are opaque. As currently drafted, the Bill is designed to enable patient passports and sharing of data with private companies, but to my mind it does not address concerns about patient privacy or private sector access to health data. I hope we can explore that further in Committee and be reassured.

My second point concerns the unlicensed use of data created by the media and broader creative industries by developers of the large language models—this has already been referred to. UK copyright law is absolutely clear that AI developers must obtain a licence when they are text or data mining—the technique used to train AI models. The media companies have suggested that the UK Government should introduce provisions to ensure that news publishers and others can retain control over their data; that there must be significant penalties for non-compliance; and that AI developers must be transparent about what data their crawlers have “scraped” from websites—a rather unpleasant term, but that is what they say. Why are the Government not doing much more to stop what seems clearly to be theft of intellectual property on a mass scale, and if not in this Bill, what are their plans? At a meeting yesterday of the APPG which I have already referred to, it was clear that the CMA does not believe that it is the right body to enforce IP law. But if it is not, who is, and if there is a gap in regulatory powers, should this Bill not be used to ensure that the situation is ameliorated?

My third and final point is about putting into statute the previous Government’s commitments about regulating AI, as outlined in the rather good Bletchley declaration. Does my noble friend not agree that it would be at least a major statement of intent if the Bill could begin to address

“the protection of human rights, transparency and explainability, fairness, accountability, regulation, safety, appropriate human oversight, ethics, bias mitigation, privacy and data protection”?

These are all points raised in the Bletchley declaration. We will need to address the governance of AI technologies in the very near future. It does not seem wise to delay, even if the detailed approach has yet to be worked through and consulted upon. At the very least, as has been referred to, we should be picking up the points made by the Ada Lovelace Institute about: the inconsistent powers across regulators; the absence of regulators to enforce the principles such as recruitment and employment, or diffusely regulated areas of public service such as policing; the absence of developer-focused obligations; and the absence and high variability of meaningful recourse mechanisms when things go wrong, as they will.

When my noble friend Lord Knight of Weymouth opened the Second Reading of the last Government’s data protection Bill, he referred to his speech on the Second Reading during the passage of the 2018 Act—so he has been around for a while. He said:

“We need to power the economy and innovation with data while protecting the rights of the individual and of wider society from exploitation by those who hold our data”.—[Official Report, 19/12/23; col. 2164.]


For me, that remains a vision that we need to realise. It concerns me that the Bill will not achieve that.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords for what has genuinely been a fascinating, very insightful debate. Even though I was part, I think, of my noble friend Lord Stevenson’s gang that has been working on this for some time, one learns new things, and I have learned new things again today about some of the issues that are challenging us. So I thank noble Lords for their contributions this evening, and I am very pleased to hear that a number of noble Lords have welcomed the Government’s main approach to the Bill, though of course beyond that there are areas where our concerns will diverge and, I am sure, be subject to further debate. I will try to clarify the Government’s thinking. I am sure noble Lords will understand, because we have had a very wide-ranging discussion, that if I am not able to cover all points, I will follow those up in writing.

I shall start with smart data. As was raised by my noble friend Lord Knight of Weymouth, and other noble Lords, the Government are keen to establish a smart data economy that brings benefits to consumers across all sectors.

Through the Smart Data Council, the Government are working closely to identify areas where smart data schemes might be able to bring more benefits. I think the point was made that we are perhaps not using it sufficiently at the moment. The Government intend to communicate where and in what ways smart data schemes can support innovation and growth and empower customers across a spectrum of markets—so there is more work to be done on that, for sure. These areas include providing the legislative basis for the fuel finder service announced by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, and supporting an upcoming call for evidence on the smart data scheme for the energy sector. Last week, the Government set out their priorities for the future of open banking in the national payments vision, which will pave the way for the UK to lead in open finance.

I turn now to digital identity, as raised by the noble Earl, Lord Erroll, and a number of other noble Lords. The measures in the Bill aim to help people and businesses across Britain to use innovative digital identity technologies and to realise their benefits with confidence. As the noble Lord, Lord Arbuthnot, said, the Bill does not make digital identities mandatory. The Bill will create a legislative structure of standards, governance and oversight for digital verification services that wish to appear on a government register, so that people will know what a good digital identity looks like. It is worth saying that a lot of these digital verification schemes already exist; we are trying to make sure that they are properly registered and have oversight. People need to know what a good digital identity looks like.

The noble Lord, Lord Arbuthnot, raised points about Sex Matters. Digital verification services can be used to prove sex or gender in the same way that individuals can already prove their sex using their passport, for example. Regarding the concerns of the noble Lord, Lord Vaux, about the inclusion of non-digital identity, the Government are clear that people who do not want to use digital identity or the digital verification services can continue to access services and live their daily lives referring to paper documents when they need to. Where people want to use more technology and feel left behind, DSIT is working hard to co-ordinate government work on digital inclusion. This is a high priority for the Government, and we hope to come back with further information on that very soon.

The Office for Digital Identities and Attributes has today published its first digital identity inclusion monitoring report. The results show a broadly positive picture of inclusion at this early stage of the markets, and its findings will inform future policy interventions.

I would like to reassure the noble Lord, Lord Markham, and the noble Viscount, Lord Camrose, that NUAR takes advantage of the latest technologies to ensure that data is accessed only for approved purposes, with all access audited. It also includes controls, developed in collaboration with the National Protective Security Authority, the National Cyber Security Centre and the security teams of asset owners themselves.

We had a very wide-ranging debate on data protection issues, and I thank noble Lords for their support for our changes to this legislation. The noble Viscount, Lord Camrose, and others mentioned delegated powers. The Government have carefully considered each delegated power and the associated parliamentary procedure and believe that each is proportionate. The detail of our rationale is set out in our delegated powers memorandum.

Regarding the concerns of the noble Lord, Lord Markham, and the noble Viscount, Lord Camrose, about the effect of the legislation on SMEs, we believe that small businesses would have struggled with the lack of clarity in the term “high-risk processing activities” in the previous Bill, which could have created more burdens for SMEs. We would prefer to focus on how small businesses can be supported to comply with the current legislation, including through user-friendly guidance on the ICO’s small business portal.

Many noble Lords, including the noble Viscount, Lord Camrose, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Thomas, and the noble Lord, Lord Vaux, raised EU adequacy. The UK Government recognise the importance of retaining our personal data adequacy decisions from the EU. I reassure the noble Lord, Lord Vaux, and my noble friend Lord Bassam that Ministers are already engaging with the European Commission, and officials will actively support the EU’s review process in advance of the renewal deadline next year. The free flow of personal data between the UK and the EU is one of the underpinning actions that enables research and innovation, supports the improvement of public services and keeps people safe. I join the noble Lord, Lord Vaux, in thanking the European Affairs Committee for its work on the matter. I can reassure him and the committee that the Secretary of State will respond within the required timeframe.

The noble Lord, Lord Bethell, and others raised international data transfers. Controllers and processors must take reasonable and proportionate steps to satisfy themselves that, after the international transfer, the level of protection for the data subject will be “not materially lower” than under UK data protection law. The Government take their responsibility seriously to ensure that data and its supporting infrastructure are secure and resilient.

On the question from the noble Viscount, Lord Colville, about the new recognised legitimate interest lawful ground, the entire point of the new lawful ground is to provide more legal certainty for data controllers that they are permitted to process personal data for the activities mentioned in new Annexe 1 to the UK GDPR. However, the processing must still be necessary and proportionate and meet all other UK GDPR requirements. That includes the general data protection principles in Article 5 of the UK GDPR, and the safeguards in relation to the processing of special category data in Article 9.

The Bill has significantly tightened up on the regulation-making power associated with this clause. The only processing activities that can be added to the list of recognised legitimate interests are those that serve the objectives of public interest, as described in Article 23(1) of the UK GDPR. The Secretary of State would also have to have regard to people’s rights and the fact that children may be less aware of the risks and consequences of the processing of their data before adding new activities to the list.

My noble friends Lord Davies of Brixton and Lord Stevenson of Balama—do you know, I have never had to pronounce his full name—Balmacara, raised NHS data. These clauses are intended to ensure that IT providers comply with relevant information standards in relation to IT use for health and adult social care, so that, where data is shared, it can be done in an easier, faster and cheaper way. Information standards create binding rules to standardise the processing of data where it is otherwise lawful to process that data. They do not alter the legal obligations that apply in relation to decisions about whether to share data. Neither the Department of Health and Social Care nor the NHS sells data or provides it for purely commercial purposes such as insurance or marketing purposes.

With regard to data assets, as raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, and my noble friend Lord Knight of Weymouth, the Government recognise that data is indeed one of the most valuable assets. It has the potential to transform public services and drive cutting-edge innovation. The national data library will unlock the value of public data assets. It will provide simple, secure and ethical access to our key public data assets for researchers, policymakers and businesses, including those at the frontier of AI development, and make it easier to find, discover and make connections across those different databases. It will sit at the heart of an ambitious programme of reform that delivers the incentives, investment and leadership needed to secure the full benefits for people and the economy.

The Government are currently undertaking work to design the national data library. In its design, we want to explore the best models of access so that public sector data benefits our society, much in the way that the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, outlined. So, decisions on its design and implementation will be taken in due course.

Regarding the concerns of the noble Lord, Lord Markham, about cybersecurity, as announced in the King’s Speech, the Government will bring forward a cybersecurity and resilience Bill this Session. The Bill will strengthen our defences and ensure that more essential digital services than ever before are protected.

The noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, the noble Viscount, Lord Colville, and my noble friend Lord Stevenson of Balmacara, asked about the Government’s plans to regulate AI and the timing of this legislation. As set out in the King’s Speech, the Government are committed to establishing appropriate legislation for companies developing the most powerful AI systems. The Government will work with industry, civil society and experts across the UK before legislation is drawn up. I look forward to updating the House on these proposals in due course. In addition, the AI opportunities action plan will set out a road map for government to capture the opportunities of AI to enhance growth and productivity and create tangible benefits for UK citizens.

Regarding data scraping, as raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, the noble Viscount, Lord Colville of Culross, and others, although it is not explicitly addressed in the data protection legislation, any such activity involving personal data would require compliance with the data protection framework, especially that the use of data must be fair, lawful and transparent.

A number of noble Lords talked about AI in the creative industries, particularly the noble Lords, Lord Holmes and Lord Freyberg—

[Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Lab)]

I am sorry to interrupt what is a very fluent and comprehensive response. I do not want to break the thread, but can I press the Minister a little bit on those companies whose information which is their intellectual property is scraped? How will that be resolved? I did not pick up from what the Minister said that there was going to be any action by the Government. Are we left where we are? Is it up to those who feel that their rights are being taken away or that their data has been stolen to raise appropriate action in the courts?

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

I was going to come on to some of those issues. Noble Lords talked about AI in the creative industries, which I think my noble friend is particularly concerned about. The Government are working hard on this and are developing an effective approach that meets the needs of the UK. We will announce more details in due course. We are working closely with relevant stakeholders and international partners to understand views across the creative sector and AI sectors. Does that answer my noble friend’s point?

[Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Lab)]

With respect, it is the narrow question that a number of us have raised. Training the new AI systems is entirely dependent on them being fed vast amounts of material which they can absorb, process and reshape in order to answer questions that are asked of them. That information is to all intents and purposes somebody else’s property. What will happen to resolve the barrier? At the moment, they are not paying for it but just taking it—scraping it.

[Baroness Kidron (CB)]

Perhaps I may come in too. Specifically, how does the data protection framework change it? We have had the ICO suggesting that the current framework works perfectly well and that it is the responsibility of the scrapers to let the IP holders know, while the IP holders have not a clue that it is being scraped. It is already scraped and there is no mechanism. I think we are a little confused about what the plan is.