Higher Education and Research Act 2017 (Cooperation and Information Sharing) Regulations 2018 — House of Lords, 2018-07-24
Topic: Mixed Topics
Andrew Adonis (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I agree with almost every word that the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, has said. My noble friend Lord Watson is to be commended for pursuing this issue with terrier-like commitment. Having now read the debates in the House of Commons, I can say that the gravity of the issues is extremely serious. My one point of difference with the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, is that he said we should learn lessons for the future. We are a Parliament and these are regulations going through Parliament. If we are deeply unhappy with them, on something as fundamental as the sharing of individuals’ data, my view is that we should not agree the regulations. The regulations should be redrafted and the Government should be required to resubmit them, and we should not pass them until they have gone through the process again of being examined by the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee and we are satisfied that there is no significant invasion of people’s individual liberty taking place I cannot think of a good reason why we would not do that, except for the fact that we are always steamrollered in these things. We are debating this in what may be—I should not give away my negotiating position—the final moments of the sitting of the House before the summer. But it need not be like that. I do not know whether my noble friend Lord Watson is thinking of pressing this to a vote, but there is a very strong case for him to do so—not just because of the gravity of the issues at stake but to send a very clear message to the Government that we are not prepared as a Parliament to be treated like this when we are representing the people on something as fundamental as data The issues that the noble Lord raised are extremely serious. Pearson is the largest single commercial education provider in the country, and these regulations give the Government unfettered power to share data with it. The explanation given by the Minister for Higher Education in the House of Commons was that it would be in respect of HNDs and HNCs where it was believed that illegality was taking place. But that is not codified anywhere in the regulations. As the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, said, the data-sharing agreement is not published, and I understand that it is not even finalised yet—although perhaps the Minister could tell us that in his remarks. That is a completely unsatisfactory situation Pearson has huge potential commercial interests in this information. What guarantees do the Government have about Chinese walls operating inside Pearson? What guarantees is he in a position to give to Parliament for us to give to students that their data will not be shared with an organisation that is then going to start trying to sell them other services or use it to target them for promotional activities—or any range of activities that could take place under this On sharing, the Minister for Higher Education in the other place said: "On students’ right to know"— this is where students will actually be informed that their data is being shared with other bodies, so it is about whether they even know, let alone consent— "the OFS will tell them before it shares data, where appropriate".—[Official Report, Commons, 2/7/18; col. 10.] What does "where appropriate" mean? This is the crucial thing. Where would it conceivably be appropriate for the Office for Students not to consult students on the sharing of their data with other bodies? That includes public sector bodies. There is big concern about how the Department for Education has been sharing information with the immigration control agencies, which I am informed has apparently been part of the hostile environment. This information has been shared in respect of school governors and, indeed, children, from other databases held in the Department for Education. So it is absolutely essential that students know where their data is being shared. My own view—and I do not think that this is too demanding—is that they should be required to give their consent to the sharing of that information. I see very big scandals coming down the line if that does not take place I have two other points. Could the noble Viscount tell the House why these regulations took effect before they were approved by Parliament? I understand that it was because it was done under the negative procedure. However, commitments were given in debates during the passage of what the Higher Education and Research Bill, which many of us spent many hours taking part in, that because of the significance of the issues at stake here, this would be done under the affirmative procedure. I see all kinds of precedents for this on the raft of regulations that will come our way when the noble Lord, Lord Callanan, gets going on transposing the European legislation into the British statute book. If the procedures that have taken place on these three regulations are replicated elsewhere, there will be major breaches of parliamentary oversight It is also immensely concerning that student bodies, including the National Union of Students, were not consulted in the construction of these regulations. That became clear in the debate in the House of Commons. The Government tried to elide that fact by saying that they are in regular consultation with them—but they were not consulted. The National Union of Students has formally protested to the Government about the fact that it was not consulted on these data-sharing regulations, which will have an immense impact on students and young people This is a sorry tale. Every word the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, and my noble friend Lord Watson said is valid in this case. I do not believe that Parliament should consent to these regulations in their current form. A major scandal could come down the line from them, and if my noble friend is minded to push this matter to a vote, I shall certainly vote with him.