My Lords, I thank the Minister for his response, dusty though it may have been. The noble Baroness, Lady Jones, is absolutely
right; this Government have form in all areas of regulation. In every area where we have had legislation related to a regulator coming down the track, the Government have taken more power on and diminished parliamentary oversight rather than enhancing it.
It is therefore a little rich to say that accountability to Parliament is the essence of all this. That is not the impression one gets reading the data protection Bill; the impression you get is that the Government are tightening the screw on the regulator. That was the case with Ofcom in the Online Safety Act; it is the case with the CMA; the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, mentioned her experience as regards the environment. Wherever you look, the Government are tightening their control over the regulators. It is something the Industry and Regulators Committee has been concerned about. We have tried to suggest various formulae. A Joint Committee of both Houses was proposed by the Communications and Digital Committee; it has been endorsed by a number of other committees, such as the Joint Committee on the Draft Online Safety Bill, and I think it has even been commended by the Industry and Regulators Committee as well in that respect.
We need to crack this one. On the issue of parliamentary accountability for the regulator and oversight, the balance is not currently right. That applies particularly in terms of appointments, in this case of the commissioner and the non-executives. The Minister very conveniently talked about removal but this could be about renewal of term, and it is certainly about appointment. So maybe the Minister was a little bit selective with the example he chose to say where the control was.
We are concerned about the independence of the regulator. The Minister did not give an answer, so I hope that he will write about whether he knows what the European Affairs Select Committee is up to. I made a bit of a case on that. Evidence is coming in, and the relevant committee in the European Parliament is giving evidence. The Minister, the noble Viscount, Lord Camrose, was guilty of this in a way, but the way that the data adequacy aspect is seen from this side of the North Sea seems rather selective. The Government need to try to try to put themselves in the position of the Commission and the Parliament on the other side of the North Sea and ask, “What do we think are the factors that will endanger our data adequacy as seen from that side?” The Government are being overly complacent in regarding it as “safe” once the Bill goes through.
It was very interesting to hear what the noble Baroness had to say about the revolving door issues. The notable thing about this amendment is how limited it is; it is not blanket. It would be entirely appropriate to have this in legislation, given the sensitivity of the roles that are carried out by senior people at the ICO.
However, I think we want to make more progress tonight, so I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.