Tag: data

Bishop of Oxford asks about ethical use of medical data

The Bishop of Oxford asked a question on the ethical questions around use of medical data and outsourcing of this data to private companies on 9th July 2025, following a government statement on the NHS 10-Year Plan:

The Lord Bishop of Oxford: My Lords, I welcome the Minister to her place and, like others, send good wishes to the noble Baroness, Lady Merron.

I welcome very much, as others have done, the three aspirations in Fit for the Future. I think that they are significant and that they are the right ones. I think they are bold and visionary. However, while I welcome the move from analogue to digital, for me, the document raises significant questions. We are looking to build a National Health Service which cares for whole people, not machines. We need, therefore, to be concerned for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health, at every stage of life, across the NHS. That demands continuous investment in people, including, of course, chaplains.

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Votes: Data (Use and Access) Bill

On 12th May 2025, the House of Lords debated the Data (Use and Access) Bill. Votes were held on amendments to the bill, in which a Bishop took part:

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Votes: Data (Use and Access) Bill

On 28th January 2025, the House of Lords debated the Data (Use and Access) Bill at the report stage. A vote was held on amendments to the bill, in which a Bishop took part:

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Votes: Data (Use and Access) Bill

On 21st January 2025, the House of Lords debated the Data (Use and Access) Bill in the first day of the report stage. Votes were held on amendments to the bill, in which Bishops took part.

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Bishop of St Albans asks about prevalence of female genital mutilation and forced marriage in the UK

The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Sharpe of Epsom on 27 February (HL2409), when the Government-funded feasibility study on estimating the prevalence of female genital mutilation and forced marriage in England and Wales will be published.

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Bishop of Oxford asks about use of data in education

The Bishop of Oxford received the following written answers on 23rd April 2024:

The Lord Bishop of Oxford asked His Majesty’s Government whether they give third parties access to national pupil data or learner records, and whether they charge a fee for any such access.

Baroness Barran (Con, DfE): The department will only share pupil, or learner, level data with others where it is lawful, secure and ethical to do so. Where these conditions are met and data is shared, the department do not charge any fee.

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Bishop of Southwark asks about errors in immigration data systems

The Bishop of Southwark received the following written answer on 15th April 2024:

The Lord Bishop of Southwark asked His Majesty’s Government what progress has been made in correcting the errors in the Person Centric Data Platform and Atlas system, which have led to the merging of different immigration records.

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Data Protection & Digital Information Bill: Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham emphasizes importance of public trust in institutions

The Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham spoke in a debate at the second reading of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill on 19th December 2023, pointing out the importance of public trust in institutions handling personal data:

The Lord Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham: My Lords, on behalf of these Benches, I too welcome the noble Lord, Lord de Clifford. I pay tribute to his maiden speech and thank him for his insightful and valuable contribution to this debate. I also look forward to many future occasions on which he will contribute to the work of this House.

As the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Albans has said, we on these Benches recognise that high-quality data is crucial to creating and sustaining a healthy and efficient society. However, it is vital to get the balance right between ownership, access, control, and legitimate use of that data. Human flourishing should be at the front of regulating how data is used and reused. As we said in our written response to the Government’s 2020 data consultation:

“Fundamentally, the church welcomes any technology that augments human dignity and worth, while staunchly resisting any application of data that undermines that dignity. Questions of efficiency and cost-effectiveness are subsidiary to questions about how the types and uses of data will promote human flourishing in society and best practice in public bodies”.

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Data Protection & Digital Information Bill: Bishop of St Albans raises concerns on police powers to access data

The Bishop of St Albans spoke in a debate at the second reading of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill on 19th December 2023, raising concerns about the expansion of police access to and use of personal data:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I too welcome the noble Lord, Lord de Clifford, and look forward to his maiden speech. We on these Benches appreciate that there is a need for updated data protection legislation in order to keep up with the many technological advances that are taking place and, wherever possible, to simplify the processes for data processing. From this perspective, we welcome the Government’s ambition to remove unnecessary red tape and to support British businesses and our economy. However, as ever, these priorities need to be balanced alongside appropriate security of new legislation and we must ensure that there are appropriate safeguards in the Bill to protect human rights that are fundamental to our democracy.

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Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill: Bishop of St Albans raises ethical concerns over data access and developing technologies

On 20th November 2023, the Bishop of St Albans spoke in a debate on the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill [HL] at the bill’s second reading, raising concerns regarding the expanded powers the bill would give to the intelligence services to access personal data, and the ethical considerations of developing technology:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I too thank the noble Lord, Lord Anderson of Ipswich, for his very helpful and excellent work in his area. With the rapid acceleration of technology and technological capacity, I recognise the need for this Bill to be updated. In this context, I welcome the Government’s sense of urgency in addressing the changing landscape in this area, and seeking to close those gaps that potentially endanger both the security and the safety of our nation. My right reverend friend the Bishop of Leeds had hoped to be here today, as he has taken a particular interest in this area, but he is detained elsewhere. We would both like to express two concerns that we believe must be addressed as this Bill is debated in your Lordships’ House.

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