I absolutely recognise the need for speed, and my noble friend Lady Harding made this point very powerfully as well, but what we are trying to do is juggle that need with the need to go through the process properly to design these things well. Let me take it away and think about it more, to make sure that we have the right balancing point. I very much see the need; it is a question of the machinery that produces the right outcome in the right timing.
6.45 pm
Amendment 150 would require the ICO to update Parliament via its annual report on the extent to which it has held organisations to account in relation to their obligations in respect of children’s data. In the future, the ICO will be required to report against key performance indicators at least annually. It is up to the Information Commissioner to set out the details of its KPIs. We understand that there is a high level of interest in the protection of children’s data. We are open to working with the ICO to consider the best ways of publicising the work that it is undertaking to protect children’s data. The ICO recently announced its children’s code strategy for 2024-25, which will focus on default privacy and geo-location settings, profiling children for targeted advertisements, using children’s information in recommender systems, and using information of children under 13 years old.
On the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, about the current shortcomings of children’s data reporting, I must confess that the example that she used—that it is difficult to take the data as produced
and analyse it—was not an argument I am familiar with. I would like to understand more about that and see what can be done. It was a new argument to me, so I am grateful for that, but perhaps should not be confessing it at the Dispatch Box.
The Government remain committed to the age-appropriate design code—let me stress that. We have worked closely with the Information Commissioner, who is supportive of these reforms. Regarding the reference in my letter to the AADC being updated once the DPDI Bill receives Royal Assent, alongside updates to other relevant pieces of ICO guidance, this is only natural given the range of clarifications made to the data protection law by the DPDI Bill. As I have said repeatedly, the Government are committed to maintaining high standards of data protection, especially for children.
For these reasons that I have set out, I am not able to accept these amendments and ask the noble Lord to withdraw Amendment 138.