In a significant victory for privacy in the UK and police accountability, the UK government dropped the controversial Data Protection and Digital Information (No.2) Bill on 24 May 2024. It will therefore not become law.
In the run-up to the UK’s general election, the Prime Minister dissolved Parliament on 30 May 2024. With insufficient parliamentary time left to finalise them, all bills that were not passed during the ‘wash-up period’ before the 4 July election, including the Data Protection and Digital Information (No.2) Bill, were dropped.
RSI welcomes the Bill's fall, especially given our concerns that, if passed, it would have breached the UK’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. It would have done so by, among other things, granting the Home Secretary a broad and unaccountable discretion to authorise the police’s viewing and use of people’s personal data – and given police immunity for breaking data protection law in a range of circumstances.
It remains possible that the next government will introduce its own changes to data protection in the UK; RSI will continue to monitor these developments and advocate for privacy-protecting measures. We will also continue to advocate against impunity for police behaviours that break the law, as we do in a variety of contexts.
For more information on the Bill, see our briefing here.
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