UK Parliament / Open data

Data Protection and Digital Information Bill

My Lords, I will be brief because we very much support these amendments. Interestingly, Amendment 239 from the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, follows closely on from a Private Member’s Bill presented in November 2021 by the Minister’s colleague, Minister Saqib Bhatti, and before that by the right honourable Andrew Mitchell, who is also currently a Minister. The provenance of this is impeccable, so I hope that the Minister will accept Amendment 239 with alacrity.

We very much support Amendment 250. The UK Commission on Bereavement’s Bereavement is Everyone’s Business is a terrific report. We welcome Clause 133 but we think that improvements can be made. The amendment from the noble Baroness, which I have signed, will address two of the three recommendations that the report made on the Tell Us Once service. It said that there should be a review, which this amendment reflects. It also said that

“regulators must make sure bereaved customers are treated fairly and sensitively”

by developing minimum standards. We very much support that. It is fundamentally a useful service but, as the report shows, it can clearly be improved. I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, on picking up the recommendations of the commission and putting them forward as amendments to this Bill.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
837 c556GC 
Session
2023-24
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords Grand Committee
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