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

Debate between Mike Amesbury and Rupa Huq

Committee stage
Wednesday 10th May 2023 Public Bill Committees

[Mike Amesbury]

Q Anna, how would you strengthen the Bill? If you were to table an amendment around employees and AI, what would it be?

Anna Thomas: I would advise very clear additional rights, and a duty to notify in advance what, how and why AI is being used where it has these impacts, and where it meets the threshold that I was just asked about. I would also advise having more consultation throughout design, development and deployment, and ongoing monitoring, because AI changes, and there are impacts that we have not thought about or cannot ascertain in advance.

There should also be a separate obligation to conduct an algorithmic impact assessment. The Bill does nudge in that direction, but it says that there should be an assessment, rather than a data protection impact assessment. We suggest that the opportunity be grasped of clarifying that—at least in the workplace context, but arguably there are lessons more widely—the assessment ought to cover these fundamental aspects, and impacts at work.

[Dr Huq]

Q It is good to see the Ada Lovelace Institute represented; she was a pioneering woman computer scientist who lived in my constituency, so it is a bit ironic that the one man here is representing the institute.

Michael Birtwistle: My colleagues could not be here, unfortunately, but they would have been better representatives in that sense.