Department for Work and Pensions: Members' Constituency Work

(asked on 13th April 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will undertake a review of her Department's policy to only recognise implicit consent to act on peoples' behalf from MPs and their offices; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending that recognition further to (a) welfare rights groups (b) and Citizens Advice.


Answered by
Alok Sharma Portrait
Alok Sharma
COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
This question was answered on 18th April 2018

The online digital account, which is fundamental to the design of the full service, allows claimants access to all their personal, medical, financial and other data. As a result, the claimant ‘holds the key’ to that account at all times.

Running a system of implied consent means that the risk of disclosure of this material to third parties is heightened beyond an acceptable level under data protection rules and might also undermine some of the other security features we build into the system through personal accreditation.

Claimants can now provide explicit consent by making an entry in their journal.

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