This is my review of the relevant part of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat Manifestos as they relate to data protection and human rights. I present a series of quotes from each Manifesto so that readers can quickly see what has been promised by the three main Parties before drawing a few summary conclusions. The Manifestos are all available online.
Conservative Manifesto
Strengthening the position of the Executive branch of Government: “After Brexit we also need to look at the broader aspects of our constitution: the relationship between the Government, Parliament and the courts; the functioning of the Royal Prerogative; the role of the House of Lords; and access to justice for ordinary people. The ability of our security services to defend us against terrorism and organised crime is critical.”
Modifying Human Rights and reducing access to Judicial Review: “We will update the Human Rights Act and administrative law to ensure that there is a proper balance between the rights of individuals, our vital national security and effective government”….and “We will ensure that judicial review is available to protect the rights of the individuals against an overbearing state, while ensuring that it is not abused to conduct politics by another means or to create needless delays.”
Review of Parliamentary Democracy: “In our first year we will set up a Constitution, Democracy & Rights Commission that will examine these issues in depth, and come up with proposals to restore trust in our institutions and in how our democracy operates”.
Leveson ditched: “We will not proceed with the second stage of the Leveson Inquiry” and “To support free speech, we will repeal section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2014, which seeks to coerce the press. (Section 40 states that those publishers who refuse to sign up to the Royal Charter-backed press regulation system – which many Conservative supporting papers have refused to join - will have to pay both sides’ costs in libel and privacy disputes, win or lose)”.
Cybersecurity: “We will adapt to new threats, investing more in cybersecurity and setting up the UK’s first Space Command”.
Labour Manifesto
Permit wider UK research access to NHS personal data: “We will ensure data protection for NHS and patient information, a highly valuable publicly funded resource that can be used for better diagnosis of conditions and for ground-breaking research. We will ensure NHS data is not exploited by international technology and pharmaceutical corporations.”
Cybersecurity: “A Labour government, ever more dependent on digital technology, will overhaul our cybersecurity by creating a co-ordinating minister and regular reviews of cyber-readiness. We will review the role and remit of the National Cyber Security Centre to determine whether it should be given powers as an auditing body, with the ability to issue warnings to private and public sector organisations and designate risk”.
Cybersecurity and crime: “We will also review the structures and roles of the National Crime Agency, to strengthen the response to all types of economic crime, including cybercrime and fraud, and ensure a modern, technologically advanced police service that has the capacity and skills to combat online crime, supported by a new national strategy on cybercrime and fraud.”
Human Rights protected: Labour will “take steps to safeguard LGBT+ rights inside or outside the EU, such as retaining and promoting the Human Rights Act…. We are guided by our firm commitment to the Human Rights Act and Convention on Human Rights that have been consistently attacked by the Conservatives. We will ratify both the Istanbul Convention on preventing domestic abuse and the ILO Convention on Violence and Harassment at work”.
Alternative to Leveson: “We will address misconduct and the unresolved failures of corporate governance raised by the second stage of the abandoned Leveson Inquiry. We will take steps to ensure that Ofcom is better able to safeguard a healthy plurality of media ownership and to put in place clearer rules on who is fit and proper to own or run TV and radio stations. We will take action to address the monopolistic hold the tech giants have on advertising revenues and will support vital local newspapers and media outlets.
Liberal Democrat Manifesto
Political adverts on social media: “Work towards radical real-time transparency for political advertising, donations and spending, including an easily-searchable public database of all online political adverts.”
Defend Human Rights: “Resist any attempt to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights and oppose any laws that unnecessarily erode civil Liberties”; “Standing up for human rights by championing the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights”.
Transparency of processing: “Empower consumers and ensure that everyone can enjoy the benefits of new technology, by setting a UK-wide target for digital literacy and requiring all products to provide a short, clear version of their terms and conditions, setting out the key facts as they relate to individuals’ data and privacy.”
Empower consumers and data subjects: “Ensure that everyone can enjoy the benefits of new technology, by setting a UK-wide target for digital literacy and requiring all products to provide a short, clear version of their terms and conditions, setting out the key facts as they relate to individuals’ data and privacy”.
Data and Processing Ethics: “Introducing a Lovelace Code of Ethics to ensure the use of personal data and artificial intelligence is unbiased, transparent and accurate, and respects privacy and give the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation the power to ‘call in’ products that appear to breach this Code”.
Some limits on national security and law enforcement processing: “Establish a firewall to prevent public agencies from sharing personal information with the Home Office for the purposes of immigration enforcement and repeal the immigration exemption in the Data Protection Act”; “end the bulk collection of communications data and internet connection records”, and “immediately halt the use of facial recognition surveillance by the police”.
Leveson: “Introduce a Leveson-compliant regulator to be given oversight of both privacy and quality, diversity and choice in both print and online media and proceed with Part Two of the Leveson Inquiry”.
My summary
In data protection and human rights terms, it is clear that the main Parties are offering a significant choice.
- the Conservative Manifesto is intended to strengthen the position of the Executive in Parliament and to protect it from legal action taken by data subjects. The Manifesto provides a “big thank you” to the Party’s tabloid friends, and is likely to make it more difficult to commence judicial review by crowdfunding (e.g. like the judicial reviews concerning facial recognition or the immigration exemption). It promises to establish a British Human Rights regime (which like the UK_GDPR, could diverge from European human rights norms).
- the Liberal Democrats’ Manifesto is the most data subject friendly and offering the complete opposite to the Conservatives. Empowered consumers, ethical processing, more protection for data subjects, less data sharing, no facial recognition by police and Leveson implemented.
- the Labour Party Manifesto, like its policy towards Brexit, sits on the fence. There is more data sharing for research in the NHS (but not for Donald Trump’s Yankie Pharma); Leveson is dropped in favour of Ofcom regulation, whilst cybersecurity is centre stage (perhaps as a result of recent hacking events on the Labour website). However, the Human Rights regime is safe.
Happy voting.
New Year Data Protection Courses (in London)
All courses lead to the relevant BCS qualification:
- Data Protection Practitioner: January 14-16, 28-30 (6 days)
- Data Protection Foundation: February 11-13 (3 days)
- Data Protection Upgrade Practitioner: February 19-20 (2 days)
- Data Protection Practitioner: February 25-27, March 10-12 (6 days)
Full details on www.amberhawk.com of by emailing [email protected]
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