MPs unite in attempt to kill data sharing bill

Government faces revolt over plans to allow widespread information sharing

Jack Straw is under fire over data sharing plans

Labour MPs are joining an opposition-led revolt against government plans to allow widespread sharing of information held in disparate public sector databases.

The Tories have united with the Liberal Democrats and some left-wing Labour MPs in a bid to make the government "see sense" and withdraw "draconian" changes to data protection laws that would facilitate greater data sharing, even where information was obtained from individuals subject to limitations about how it would be used.

Shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve and Liberal Democrat justice spokesman David Howarth said in the House of Commons that they would oppose sections of the Coroners and Justice Bill that are being used to introduce the new regulations.

Justice secretary Jack Straw said that the Bill is implementing proposals from Professor Mark Walport and Information Commissioner Richard Thomas for orders authorising data sharing deemed "in the public interest" and " proportionate" in their impact on the individuals concerned.

The threat, together with vociferous opposition from some Labour members, could undermine the government's ability to get the proposals through the Lords where the Tories and Liberal Democrats combine regularly with independents to inflict defeats on Labour on details of legislation.

However, the Tories failed to support a Lib Dem bid to kill the bill at the start.

Straw accused Grieve of "gross exaggeration" about proposals to help individuals through better data sharing, citing bereaved families having to report deaths "many times over" to different departments.

The Information Commissioner would oversee the process, scrutinise orders and report to Parliament, he said.

But Grieve accused Straw of engineering "a seismic change in the relationship between the state and the citizen" with "enormous implications for civil liberties" which "raises really serious possibilities of the oppressive state" through "massive and uncontrolled data sharing".

Howarth said that the legislation would allow ministers to authorise data sharing beyond government departments to private organisations outside the UK, including information gathered for identity cards, regardless of guarantees written into the Identity Cards Act.

He said that the Thomas and Walport review had insisted that fast-tracking plans for data sharing should operate in precisely defined circumstances, a caveat missing from Straw's bill.

Howarth warned that the only parliamentary control would be 90-minute debates on individual orders in committees with decisions rubber-stamped by votes taken just after prime minister's question time, thereby maximising the number of Labour MPs available to take part.

Liberal Democrat MP David Heath said that the sharing provision is so broad "it will have quite a staggering effect undermining the principles in the Data Protection Act".

In the debate, Liberal Democrat MP Jenny Willott said that legislation was not needed to stop individuals having to contact several government departments in the event of a death. All that was needed to allow the information submitted once to be shared was a simple requirement for consent.

Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn maintained that the change in the law would permit departments to go beyond data and share information about individuals' views as well.

And Labour MP Emily Thornberry called for the bill to expressly limit data sharing to that complying with Article 8 of the Human Rights Act guaranteeing the right to privacy.