[EDIT: in this post I originally said I understood that the current parliamentary session would end when Parliament rises for summer recess. Prompted by Andrew Harvey, on the Jiscmail Data Protection list, I checked this point, and I was wrong: my MP (who, on the two occasions I’ve emailed him, has been impressively responsive), says “With the legislative programme from the King’s Speech barely a quarter of the way through, I would guess this will be at least an 18 month session”). So one of the pressing issues in the post is less pressing, but that still doesn’t get round the issue of the impasse.]
Westminster is at an impasse over the Data (Use and Access) Bill. The Lords have repeatedly introduced amendments, in the form of totally new clauses on AI and copyright which were never intended to be part of the Bill, and the Commons have repeatedly removed them. Yesterday’s reprise of the exercise suggests that ping pong is not stopping any time soon.
This must be of tremendous frustration to the government. In particular, it will be of significant concern to the ministers and civil servants who will be negotiating with the European Commission over the reciprocal data adequacy arrangements which allow free transfer of personal data between the EU and the UK. The Commission had introduced a sunset clause to the original agreement, which was due to expire this month, but this has been extended for a further six months, specially to allow for the passage and enactment of the DUAB (the Commission wants to see what the revised UK data protection scheme will look like).
So what happens now? As the Bill was introduced in the Lords, the Commons cannot invoke its powers to force the Bill through to Royal Assent, under section 2 of the Parliament Act 2011.
The current parliamentary session may well run on for some time yet. Traditionally, all parliamentary business would cease at prorogation, so if a Bill hadn’t passed, it fell. In recent years, however, procedures in both Houses have been developed, whereby, by agreement, a Bill can “carry over” to the next session. This is very unusual, though, with a Bill introduced in the Lords. It is also difficult to see how, or why, there would be agreement to carry over a Bill like the DUAB, over which the two Houses are in actual disagreement.
Maybe the alternative would be to allow the Bill to fall (or withdraw it), and reintroduce it in the Commons, in the next session.
But there would be no winners in such a scenario. The government (and Parliament) would have to go to significant time and cost, and the opponents in the Lords, serried behind Baroness Kidron, would be no closer to getting the artists’ protections from AI models that they seek.
And in the meantime, the extended sunset clause for UK adequacy would be dropping below the horizon.
Is there still time for compromise? The simple answer is yes, but there have been few signs of much movement from either side.
The views in this post (and indeed most posts on blog) are my personal ones, and do not represent the views of any organisation I am involved with.
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