Digital ID Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Science, Innovation & Technology
Emma Lewell
Main Page: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)Department Debates - View all Emma Lewell's debates with the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology
(1 day, 9 hours ago)
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Josh Simons
I am delighted that the hon. Member is so pleased with gov.uk. I am sure that he will be equally delighted when we roll out the simple, easy-to-use and effective digital ID, which will help him to access a whole range of public services through gov.uk that he cannot currently access. In the coming weeks, we will show him more about how we might do that, and I am sure that he will be thrilled.
Emma Lewell (South Shields) (Lab)
This is a mess. Increasing surveillance, Department for Work and Pensions powers to snoop on bank accounts, the removal of trials by jury, postponing elections and clamping down on peaceful protest—the public are starting to become very angry about these encroachments on our fundamental freedoms and creeping state control. It is all inherently un-British. I know that this is not my hon. Friend’s fault, but can he convey to whoever is behind this farce that they are doing this Government no favours at all? It is time to scrap this costly project altogether.
Josh Simons
I too believe in freedom. Any good digital system must be trusted; if it is not trusted, it does not work. That point will be at the heart of the consultation that we will publish in a few weeks. The system that we build will give citizens more control and information about how their data is used and who accesses it. It will be decentralised, with strong firewalls between data sets, so that there is no central data storage, beyond data that the Government already hold. It will hold the minimum possible data needed to serve ordinary people better.