My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have contributed to what has been an excellent debate on this issue. We have all been united in raising our concerns about whether the offices of the biometrics commissioner and the surveillance camera commissioner should be abolished. We all feel the need for more independent oversight, not less, as is being proposed here.
As we know, the original plan was for the work of the biometrics commissioner to be transferred to the Information Commissioner, but when he raised concerns that this would result in the work receiving less attention, it was decided to transfer it to the Investigatory Powers Commissioner instead. Meanwhile, the office of the surveillance camera commissioner is abolished on the basis that these responsibilities are already covered elsewhere. However, like other noble Lords, we remain concerned that the transfer of this increasingly important work from both commissioners will mean that it does not retain the same level of expertise and resources as it enjoys under the current regime.
These changes have caused some alarm among civic society groups such as the Ada Lovelace Institute and the Centre for Research into Information Surveillance and Privacy, to which noble Lords have referred. They argue that we are experiencing a huge expansion in the reach of surveillance and biometric technology. The data being captured, whether faces, fingerprints, walking style, voice or the shape of the human body, are uniquely personal and part of our individual identity. The data being captured can enhance public safety but can also raise critical ethical concerns around privacy, free expression, bias and discrimination. As the noble Lord, Lord Vaux, said, we need a careful balance of those issues between protection and privacy.
The noble Baroness, Lady Harding, quite rightly said that there is increasing public mistrust in the use of these techniques, and that is why there is an urgent need to take people on the journey. The example the noble Baroness gave was vivid. We need a robust legal framework to underpin the use of these techniques, whether it is by the police, the wider public sector or private institutions. As it stands, the changes in the Bill do not achieve that reassurance, and we have a lot of lessons to learn.
Rather than strengthening the current powers to respond to the huge growth and reach of surveillance techniques, the Bill essentially waters down the protections. Transferring the powers from the BSCC to the new Information Commissioner brings the issue down to data protection when the issues of intrusion and the misuse of biometrics and surveillance are much wider than that. Meanwhile, the impact of Al will herald a growth of new techniques such as facial emotional appraisal and video manipulation, leading to such things as deep fakes. All these techniques threaten to undermine our sense of self and our control of our own personal privacy.
The amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Holmes, takes up the suggestion, also made by the Ada Lovelace Institute, to establish a biometrics office within the ICO, overseen by three experienced commissioners. The functions would provide general oversight of biometric techniques, keep a register of biometric users and set up a process for considering complaints. Importantly, it would require all entities processing biometric data to register with the ICO prior to any use.
We believe that these amendments are a really helpful contribution to the discussion. They would place the oversight of biometric techniques in a more effective setting where the full impacts of these techniques can be properly monitored, measured and reported on. We would need more details of the types of work to be undertaken by these commissioners, and the cost implications but, in principle, we support these amendments because they seem to be an answer to our concerns. We thank the noble Lord for tabling them and very much hope the Minister will give the proposals serious consideration.
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My Amendments 238 and 286 address another concern about the limitation of the current regime. This relates to how biometric techniques can sometimes be used or misused to classify people. The current definition of biometric data is limited to unique identification, such as photographs or fingerprints. Far more worrying is the application of these techniques to classify people, and put them in a particular box, without them knowing, in ways that could have long-lasting detriment on their lives. AI and large language models pose a particular threat in this regard. For example, apart from classifying the obvious physical traits, it could affect people’s access to jobs, and they could be targeted unfairly by the police or be subjected to persistent messaging and advertising over which they have no control.
When this was debated in the Commons, the Minister, John Whittingdale, argued that this was already covered by the GDPR, but I am not sure that is the case. The GDPR specifically focuses on individual data rights. Our amendment would amend the UK GDPR to extend the biometric data protections currently in place from simply identifying an individual to also identifying the classification applied to them. I therefore hope that the Minister can see the sense in these amendments, and I look forward to his response.
Finally, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, for his amendments and his contribution. I think that we are all on the same page here, sharing a concern about the abolition of the office of the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner, and trying to find the best way to replace and enhance those protections. I thought that the noble Lord made a very strong case for his amendments in that regard.
I think that we are all in agreement, although we do not have the same wording. I think that with a little effort we could find that wording. These are important issues. I hope that the Minister can give a more positive response than to the last debate that I spoke in. We are
going to carry on working on it, even if he does not want to—so I hope that we are able to make some progress on this issue.