Clause 152
Coroners and Justice Bill
2:15 pm
David Kidney (Stafford, Labour)
Although I have not had a huge number of representations from constituents, they have expressed concerns about the clause as drafted—two in total, although one mentioned the British Computer Society, which apparently also opposes the clause in its present form. I assume that the society has a reasonable number of members whom it is accurately representing in its objections to the present provision.
When I became a member of the Committee, it crossed my mind that I would want to table amendments to the clause. I e-mailed the Information Commissioner asking for a briefing to enable me to understand the issues and perhaps identify what the right amendments would be. I do not criticise his reply, but it was that, as I was a Member, I would hear his evidence in Committee and get his memorandum like everyone else. I heard his evidence and asked him whether he expected the Government’s provision to enable a Minister to repeal by order the Data Protection Act or the Human Rights Act. He said no, he had not appreciated that that might be the consequence. I listened to his evidence and read his memorandum, but together they did not quite give me the feel for what the amendments should do to make some sense of the clause.
In my exchange with the hon. Member for Cambridge, I asked if he thought his amendments quite did it, and he said that he did not think that they did. I have come to the conclusion that there will have to be nothing less than a rewrite. When completed, the clause will have to have a less complex definition of data sharing, a more agreed basis for the weighing of different policy objectives—with the example I gave about pension credit, one can see how two desirable things come into conflict with each other—and something about how far the order-making power can go in repealing primary legislation. Perhaps the Information Commissioner did not appreciate what he was unleashing when he made that suggestion in his report.
I hope that the Minister will say that she understands the objections, that she wants a provision such as this in the final Act, but that she agrees it should be in a different form.