Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords]

Alex Sobel Excerpts

Wednesday 7th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Siân Berry (Brighton Pavilion) (Green)]

I rise to speak to new clause 15, but I also want to associate myself with the many right hon. and hon. Members who have spoken up for our creative industries. Our most talented and creative minds have not been getting fair representation from the Government up to now, and this has been a very interesting, well informed and, hopefully, influential debate today. New clause 15 is about privacy, safety and providing a dedicated complaints procedure for individuals including victims of modern slavery, domestic abuse, gender-based violence and for others at risk of serious harm if their personal data is mishandled.

This is not a theoretical question. Last November, The Independent reported on Lola, a domestic abuse victim whose home address was leaked to her ex-partner by a company that obtains restraining orders. She said that she was left fearing for her life. As the Open Rights Group has laid out in its briefing, the Information Commissioner’s Office is not functioning as it should be in cases such as this. I have many examples—including how Charnwood district council sent details of the new address of an abused woman directly to her abuser at her former address, so that her abuser knew where she lived—yet people placed at risk in this way currently have no means of challenging the Information Commissioner’s Office if it fails to take the right action, which happens too often. New clause 15 simply proposes dedicated procedures to support vulnerable people making complaints and a right to appeal to the Information Tribunal, a route currently available to large tech firms but not to the people harmed by their practices. I hope that Ministers will take these proposals up.

On other amendments, I fully back the Liberal Democrats on new clauses 2 to 6, which I am signed up to. I personally will abstain from voting on the Liberal Democrats’ new clause 1 and on the Conservatives’ new clause 19. This is because, although I am minded to increase the age of digital consent from 13, given the wider implications of harmful content and data that can be collected and used to do harm, my discussions locally with parents and young people in Brighton Pavilion have led me to want to properly include both groups in any decision on what that new age should be, given that it would cut people off from social media. We must have rapid and real processes of deliberation on this issue as soon as possible that are not just consultative but collaborative.

Finally, new clause 21 is of serious concern to my constituents, and I agree with them and TransActual that it would constitute a gross violation of privacy rights by creating a mass outing of trans people. Subsection (1)(d) of this new clause even goes so far as to seek to revert historical changes made to someone’s gender marker. I urge the Government to reject this and to act further to protect trans rights more broadly.

[Alex Sobel (Leeds Central and Headingley) (Lab/Co-op)]

I rise to speak to my new clause 14 and amendment 10. Furthermore, I would like to make note of my steadfast opposition to new clause 21, which does not simply change data collection. It proposes to mark and track individuals based on “sex at birth”, regardless of their lived reality, legal recognition or consent. No one—not a Government, not a public authority, not a politician—has the right to define who another person is; only the individual can do that. This is a fundamental principle of dignity and respect that transcends political views and legal debates. We must reject new clause 21.

Moving on to my new clause 14, it is widely accepted that AI has already ingested everything on the internet, whether it be music, films or books, yet there is no legal requirement on these companies to disclose what they have used, making it difficult for musicians and authors to enforce their rights and, crucially, to be paid for their work. So I urge the Minister to give a commitment to legislating for transparency to protect the creative industries.

I note the Government’s new clauses 16 and 17 as a starting point, but we both know that we want to see a thriving licensing market between content creators and AI developers. A transparency commitment today would enable that licensing market as creators would be in a position to enforce their rights and demand fair pay. There would be certainty for AI developers, removing the risk of mitigation in the future. Without transparency, there is no incentive for AI firms to reach agreements with creators, and billionaire-owned tech firms will continue to rip off musicians, filmmakers and authors.

[Chris Hinchliff (North East Hertfordshire) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that new technology should be a tool to improve lives, not just a mechanism for funnelling more wealth and power into the hands of already super-rich corporations? Does he agree that the Bill would benefit from going even further in providing greater transparency?

[Alex Sobel]

My new clause 14 would do that, so I hope the Government are taking note.

This debate is not just about economic rights. Last week I learned about the holocaust survivor Renee Salt, whose book “A Mother’s Promise” was ripped by AI, with similarly named books appearing online days after the original was released. There can be no starker contrast than Renee sharing her most traumatic experiences for the benefit of others, and a computer algorithm stealing from a Holocaust survivor to profit from her suffering. We must stand up for the human creativity that helps us to process the world we live in, or the world will become a much darker place.

I tabled amendment 10, which relates to safe data transfer, in order to confront a glaring weakness in our current data protection regime through the continued transfer of UK user data to jurisdictions that cannot and do not provide basic legal protections or enforceable rights. The need for the amendment is not theoretical. Under current rules, companies often rely on a set of contracts—international data transfer agreements—as proof that data transfers will be adequately protected. However, that assumption is increasingly proving to be false.

The Irish Data Protection Commission fined TikTok €530 million after an in-depth inquiry into its transfers of European Economic Area user data to China. The Irish authorities found that TikTok had failed to adequately assess whether Chinese law provided a level of protection “essentially equivalent” to that guaranteed under GDPR— the General Data Protection Regulation. The ruling was possible because there are no credible legal remedies in China. Laws such as the national intelligence law, the cyber-security law and the anti-terrorism law compel organisations to provide access to data without judicial oversight or meaningful recourse for individuals. China is unable to provide a level of protection “essentially equivalent” to that guaranteed in the Data Protection Act 2018 and in this Bill.

Contracts alone do not protect users when the legal system of the receiving country is incompatible with fundamental rights. This amendment introduces a clear rule: where there is no meaningful enforcement of data rights, no independent judiciary, no administrative remedy or no legal path to challenge unlawful access, such countries will be deemed unsafe for UK data transfers. The Bill must address this critical blind spot. Contracts alone cannot ensure user rights in jurisdictions that offer no legal safeguards. This amendment provides a principled, legally sound and urgently needed response to a real-world threat. I hope that the Minister, given his background, will take these issues seriously and meet me to look further at how we can close this loophole.