medConfidential asks Peers to:
- Express support for Baroness Findlay’s amendment on Part 5 (NC213A-D)
- Express support for either amendment to Part 5 Chapter 2 (Clause 39)
- Oppose current Clause 30 of Part 5 in Committee and on Report
We attach a briefing, with a more detailed consideration of these points, but in summary:
In 2009, the then Government removed clause 30’s direct predecessor – clause 152 of the Coroners and Justice Bill – because the single safeguard offered then was ineffective. Bringing that back, this Government has not only excluded important aspects of Parliamentary scrutiny, it is trying to introduce “almost untrammeled powers” (para 21), that would “very significantly broaden the scope for the sharing of information” (para 4) without transparency, and with barely any accountability. The policy intent is clear:
“the data-related work will be part of wider reforms set out in the Digital Economy Bill. [GDS Director General Kevin] Cunnington said as an example, that both DWP and the NHS have large databases of citizen records, and that “we really need to be able to match those”. (interview)
While there is a broad prohibition on the use of data from health and social care for research further down on the face of this Bill, in Chapter 5, the approach taken in clause 30 is very different, and contains no such prohibition. Regulations (currently draft) published under clause 36 simply omit the Secretary of State for Health from the list of Ministers, thereby excluding NHS bodies but not copies of health data others require to be provided. This is another fatal flaw in clause 30.
medConfidential is deeply concerned that Chapter 2 of Part 5 contains no safeguards against bulk copying. We accept the case for a power to disclose civil registration information on an individual consented basis – a citizen should be able to request the registrar informs other bodies of the registration – but, just as clause 30 contains insufficient safeguards and is designed to enable bulk copying, so is Chapter 2. One of the amendments laid to Part 5 Chapter 2 should be accepted.
Governments have had since 2009 to solve the problems that clause 30 not only leaves unaddressed, but exacerbates. The Government should either heavily amend Clause 30 at Report stage, or ensure it is removed before Third Reading. This clause is a breeding ground for disaster and a further collapse in public trust, and it simply doesn’t have to happen.
While medConfidential is open to legislation that treats sensitive and confidential personal data in a consensual, safe and transparent manner, this legislation does not. Despite more than 2 years of conversations about accessing data through systems that respect citizens and departments (ie data subjects and data controllers) and the promises they make to each other; Cabinet Office instead took a clause from 2009 off the shelf, and has been actively misleading about the process.