Electoral Commission: Data Breaches
Debate between Baroness Neville-Rolfe and Lord Hayward(8 months ago)
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Lord Hayward
To ask His Majesty’s Government, following recent disclosures of a data breach from the Electoral Commission, what action they are taking to mitigate the effects of this and to prevent data breaches across the public sector.
The Minister of State, Cabinet Office (Baroness Neville-Rolfe) (Con)
My Lords, since the Electoral Commission reported the incident to the National Cyber Security Centre, the Government have worked closely with the commission to provide it with expertise and support to deal with the incident and guard against the risk of future attacks. Through our government cybersecurity strategy, we are reducing the likelihood of data breaches in the public sector and the impact of the breaches that happen.
Lord Hayward (Con)
My Lords, given the supplementaries to the previous Question, which touched on this whole issue of security, security breaches and the awareness of government departments and individuals of what they should and should not do and how they should work with others, is my noble friend now absolutely clear about where this breach came from and whether it has been secured, let alone whether things will be better going forward?
Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con)
It is a matter for the Electoral Commission, which is independent of government and accountable to Parliament through the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission. Since it reported the incident to the NCSC, we have been working closely to provide expertise and support. The Electoral Commission has made a statement that the breach was limited and not a great deal of new information has gone into the public domain, and it has given advice on what citizens might do. On the cause, I am not sure I have anything to add to the general comment I made on operational matters.
BHS
Debate between Baroness Neville-Rolfe and Lord Hayward
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
My understanding is that the pension powers are quite wide-ranging, and there is therefore the possibility of previous owners being called to account and having to provide some sort of compensation. I referred to the changes made in 2005, which provide various avenues. This is probably the first Statement we have had on this subject in this House and I will certainly provide a little more detail in writing on what the provisions are, if that would be helpful to the noble Lord.
Lord Hayward (Con)
My noble friend referred to investigating the pension funds and processes by which the deficit arose, and a number of other noble Lords and noble Baronesses have referred to the fact that the investigatory powers do not seem to be adequate. When the development of pension fund deficits is investigated, I ask my noble friend to concentrate specifically—or that she ask the authorities to do so—on those companies and funds whose closure would mean that no assets were left in this country. It is all very well saying that we will pursue an individual or pursue sums of money but, as the noble Lord, Lord Myners, identified, in a number of cases there are no assets left in this country and, possibly, no individuals to pursue either.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
I am not sure that I entirely understand all the subtleties of my noble friend’s remarks. Obviously, Sir Philip Green is a director of a number of active companies in this country at present, mainly in the Arcadia Group. I think that I explained that there is recourse. If it were to come to this—and I am not sure that we should necessarily leap to conclusions—it is possible to take steps against people, including criminal investigations, if those are appropriate. Of course, different member states help each other in relation to people who are located in different domiciles.
Sport: Integrity
Debate between Baroness Neville-Rolfe and Lord Hayward
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
They could indeed draw great inspiration from the Invictus Games and from the Olympics and Paralympics. Of course, the fact that Prince Harry is involved makes us all delighted.
Lord Hayward (Con)
When we send a team to Rio, rather than looking at the negative elements of sport, will my noble friend take the opportunity to look at the positive sides and find time, either before or after the team goes, to laud those who make a positive rather than a negative contribution to society?
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
My noble friend makes a very strong point. We can also lead the way on the issue of corruption by making sure that all our athletes are tested before they go and that we have no problems and no reputational issues when we are in Brazil.
Trade Union Bill
Debate between Baroness Neville-Rolfe and Lord Hayward
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
I am grateful to the noble Lord for correcting me. The point I was making is that it is interesting to compare different council experience; we could probably agree on that.
Lord Hayward
For the sake of accuracy, following the comment of the noble Lord, Lord Beecham, the independent mayor was formerly a Liberal Democrat, so the noble Lord and I may agree on the role there.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
In London, local government displays significant variances. Lambeth Council spends 0.33% of its pay bill, or £281,000 a year, on facility time; Tower Hamlets spends 0.15%. At Transport for London, facility time costs £4.1 million a year, which is 0.3% of its pay bill. Those are large figures when one considers that Wandsworth Council spends just £22,000 a year, or 0.01% of its pay bill, on facility time.
Amendments 76 and 77 would limit the range of information published to just the total number of union representatives and the total cost of facility time. To promote reasonable transparency and accountability, there needs to be an appropriate level of detail published. That is to improve efficiency and is not—as was suggested by, I think, the noble Lord, Lord Harris—just as a trigger. That is a separate provision, which we will be debating in a later group. The inefficiencies identified in the Civil Service would not have come to light if only the total cost of facility time and number of union representatives had been published. A single cost figure for a large council and another single figure for a small government agency are just not comparable. That is why we propose the publication of the data as set out in the annexe to my letter.
Amendment 78 would expand the range of information that relevant employers should be required to publish to include cost savings and the value of facility time arrangements. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, for any employer to quantify the efficacy or value of existing facility time arrangements. Unlike calculating the cost of salaried facility time, this strikes me as an exercise for an academic. It would be unreasonable to expect every public sector employer to undertake calculations that would be so burdensome. Of course, should employers feel able to estimate the information suggested in the amendments, they are free to do so.
With regard to the proposed amendments to the public authorities which could be required to publish information, Amendments 83 and 84, I acknowledge that some types of employer are clearly understood to be a public authority, such as government departments or local authorities. For other public sector employers, such as academy schools, the position is less well understood. I hope that noble Lords are reassured by the government amendment brought forward today which will enable the regulations to be drafted so that they apply only to those bodies specified either individually or by category. If I may, I shall take away the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Watson, on primary schools, because I am not quite sure where that falls, in the light of that letter.
The Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee set out in its 15th report on 4 December the view that the powers to specify the information to be provided were properly exercisable using the negative procedure, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, reminded us. The committee expressed concern that the regulations could be extended to private companies receiving a small amount of public funding—we had some examples earlier —and, in turn, the reserve power to cap facility time could be applied to those organisations. Amendments 83 and 84 reflect similar concerns. I hope that noble Lords will accept that by amending the Bill as proposed and as agreed, and largely mirroring the regulations for Clause 14, we have taken a reasonable and proportionate approach to capturing only those public authorities that should rightly be accountable to the taxpayer.