Data reforms face delay over Parliamentary 'ping-pong'

The UK’s data protection reforms could be delayed way into the new year, despite being waved through the “third reading”, after hundreds of last minute amendments were rushed through “without proper scrutiny”, meaning the Bill could now “ping-pong” between the Commons and Lords for months.

The amendments, which faced heavy criticism in Parliament, include changes to the rules on direct marketing in elections, meaning politicians only need a “soft opt-in”; a reduction in consumers’ rights over subject access requests, and, even more controversially, giving the Government extensive powers to access to the bank accounts of benefit claimants in an attempt to cut fraud.

Opening the debate on the Data Protection & Digital Information (No 2) Bill, Labour MP for Rhondda Sir Chris Bryant urged the House to re-commit to a Public Bill Committee due to the huge number of amendments tabled at the 11th-hour.

He insisted that the Minister for Digital & Data Infrastructure Sir John Whittingdale had assured him the Government would table “only a few minor and technical amendments to the Bill”, which he hoped everyone would be able to agree fairly easily.

However, on the last available day, 182 days after Committee, the Government brought out 240 amendments.

Bryant said: “Some are indeed minor and technical, but many are very significant. They strike to the heart of the independence of the new Information Commission, they alter the rights of the public in making subject access requests, and they amend our system in a way that may or may not enhance our data adequacy with the US and the European Union and therefore British businesses’ ability to rely on UK legislation to trade overseas.

“In some instances, they give very extensive new powers to Ministers, and they introduce completely new topics that have never been previously mooted, debated or scrutinised by Parliament in relation to this Bill, which already has more baubles on it than the proverbial Christmas tree. The end result is that we have 156 pages of amendments to consider today in a single debate.”

However, his call was voted down and the debate proceeded, although at many stages of the five-hour sitting the chamber was virtually empty.

As the amendments were read out, Deputy Speaker Sir Roger Gale said: “For the benefit of all members, we are before the knife, so we will have to go through a sequence of procedures. It would help me, the Clerk and the Minister if we had a degree of silence. This will take a little time, and we need to be able to concentrate.”

Before the final vote, Whittingdale summed up: “This Bill will deliver tangible benefits to British consumers and businesses alike, which would not have been possible if Britain had still been a member of the European Union. It delivers a more flexible and less burdensome data protection regime that maintains high standards of privacy protection while promoting growth and boosting innovation. It does so with the support of the Information Commissioner, and without jeopardising the UK’s European Union data adequacy.”

However, Bryant countered: “I feel ashamed to say it, but I hope the Lords are able to do the line-by-line scrutiny that we have been prevented from doing today.”

SNP MP Patrick Grady agreed. He concluded: “The Government should take the opportunity to start from scratch with a process that listens to consultation responses and involves genuine and detailed parliamentary scrutiny.

“If the Bill proceeds to the Lords, it will once again fall to the unelected House to more fully interrogate it. That will no doubt lead to several rounds of ping-pong in due course, almost certainly as a result of amendments both from the Government and from the Opposition or Cross-Benchers in the Upper House.”

The Bill was passed by 269 votes to 31 and now goes to the Lords.

Even so, both Houses must agree on the text of the Bill before it can become an Act. A Bill may move backwards and forwards between the two Houses a number of times before agreement is reached.