My Lords, the purpose of these draft regulations is to allow information sharing between specified bodies for specific purposes. They also seek to make an amendment to the Digital Economy Act 2017. In addition, six codes of practice and one statement of principles associated with Chapters 1 to 5 and 7 of Part 5 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 have been consolidated into four instruments, to be approved by a resolution of each House.
Turning first to the draft regulations, the public service delivery power supports the improvement or targeting of public services. The powers are designed to give public services the information needed to provide early intervention or, where possible, prevent the problems that reduce people’s life chances. In order to exercise the public service delivery power, government must set specific purposes for data sharing via regulations. Those purposes must meet specific criteria defined in the primary legislation. These draft regulations seek to establish four specific objectives for data sharing under the public service delivery power to address “multiple disadvantages”, including fuel poverty and water poverty, and to provide targeted assistance in retuning televisions following spectrum changes.
We have worked closely with colleagues across the UK Government and the devolved Administrations to ensure that these powers have a UK-wide reach. However, due to the absence of a functioning Assembly in Northern Ireland, the data-sharing powers in relation to fraud, debt and public service delivery have not been commenced to cover Northern Ireland at this time.
I am sure that noble Lords will agree that the Government have a clear duty to support the citizens we serve and to ensure that the most vulnerable in society get the help they need. The formulation of each of the public service delivery objectives has been guided by this principle. Data sharing is a vital and effective way of identifying individuals and households experiencing problems which reduce their life chances.
I shall set out some details of the objectives in the regulations. The first concerns multiple disadvantages. The regulations would allow for data sharing between specified public authorities to help identify individuals or households which face two or more disadvantages. By disadvantages, I mean factors which, in combination with each other, limit the life chances of individuals or households—for example, by affecting people’s health or emotional well-being, or their social and economic chances. The objective was initially developed to support the troubled families programme, which supports the identification of families across England, but it is also intended to be available for similar programmes across the UK.
The second objective relates to television retuning. In order to meet the increasing demand for mobile data, the Government have agreed to fund up to £600 million so that the 700 megahertz band, which is currently used for digital terrestrial television, can be allocated for mobile broadband. As a result of the clearing of the band, approximately 150,000 households may need either to replace or realign their aerial to continue receiving all available channels. These powers will help identify those who are on certain benefits and require further support to ensure that they continue to receive digital terrestrial television services.
Thirdly, the fuel poverty objective will provide a gateway for specified public bodies to share information between themselves to help them identify households living in fuel poverty and ensure that those households get the support they need. It will also enable specified public bodies to flag those who are eligible to energy suppliers. The aim is to enable more vulnerable households and families to receive automatic rebates in the same way as over 1 million pensioners do through the warm home discount scheme. However, these rebates can take place only if the state can inform energy suppliers which of their customers should receive them.
The fourth objective concerns water poverty. Similarly, this would allow the sharing of information between public authorities to help identify those who might be living in water poverty and help ensure that they receive the support they need. The information could be shared by public authorities with water and sewerage companies to help them better target their support schemes, such as social tariffs, as allowed by powers in the Digital Economy Act.
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Secondly, I turn to the amendment to the Digital Economy Act 2017. The Act specifies the conditions for disclosure of information to energy suppliers. One condition is that information disclosed under these powers must be used by the recipient in connection with a specified support scheme. The amendment seeks to enable information to be shared to identify vulnerable customers at risk of fuel poverty for coverage by price protection—a safeguard tariff. Five million vulnerable households are already protected by a safeguard tariff and we are keen to ensure that the delivery of such protections is assisted by the ability of suppliers to match customer data with the data held by government, as appropriate.
Those are the details of the regulations. The codes of practice provide details to practitioners on how information-sharing powers under the Digital Economy Act 2017 must be operated. The four instruments which have been laid before Parliament are: the Information sharing code of practice: public service delivery, debt and fraud; the Civil Registration Data Sharing Code of Practice; the Research Code of Practice and Accreditation Criteria; and the Statistics Statement of Principles and Code of Practice on changes to data systems.
All public authorities and other participants using the information-sharing powers in Part 5 of the Digital Economy Act must have regard to the relevant code before any information is shared. Failure to have regard to the relevant code might result in a public authority or organisation losing the ability to disclose, receive and use information under the powers of the Digital Economy Act 2017. The codes also explain the criminal sanctions for unlawfully disclosing personal information under the Act.
We worked with other government departments, the devolved Administrations and the Information Commissioner’s Office, as well as civil society groups with privacy interest, in developing the codes. All five instruments were subject to a six-week public consultation in the autumn of 2017 ahead of their being laid in May this year. They were also made available in draft form to parliamentarians to consider during the Committee stage of the Digital Economy Bill in November 2016. These efforts helped to ensure that the right balance was struck between supporting practitioners to ensure that they are able to make use of the powers, and building in safeguards to protect individuals’ privacy and prevent the unlawful disclosure of data. I commend these regulations and codes of practice to the House, and I beg to move.