Lords Set To Strengthen UK's "Not Fit For Purpose" International Data Protections

Peers have warned that it would be a “mistake” for the government not to put stronger protections in place on the international transfer of data, with one former minister claiming current regulations are "not fit for purpose".

The Data Protection and Digital Information Bill will be debated in the House of Lords on Monday afternoon, with a group of peers putting forward a number of amendments in an attempt to implement further protections for the transfer of data from the UK. 

With the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary both warning that the world is becoming a more dangerous place, parliamentarians are looking for ways to push the government to prioritise protecting digital rights internationally.

One amendment to the bill, laid by Lord James Bethell, Lord Timothy Kirkhope, and Lord Tim Clement-Jones, seeks to prevent the UK from transferring data to countries which have “no credible means to enforce data subject rights or obtain legal remedies”.

Bethell, a former innovation minister between 2020 and 2021, told PoliticsHome he was worried that the UK Government did not want to tackle such a “fiendishly complicated subject”, but that it would be a “mistake” not to do so.

“[The bill] has this massive gap, not including international transfer of data in that Data Protection Bill is a huge lacuna, a mistake,” he said.

“What the hell are we doing, sending every day gigabytes and gigabytes of very sensitive population data to countries who have an explicit strategy to try to cream off and farm data for national security and trade reasons?”

Citing “countries of concern” identified by the USA as North Korea, Iran, Russia, and China that are likely using data from the UK to promote their interests, Bethell said he and other peers