Extracts from committee
stage (Lords) of the Trade Bill
(LD) [V]:...In July, in the case of Schrems II,
the European Court of Justice ruled that the privacy shield
framework, which allows data transfers between the US, the UK and
the EU, is invalid. That has been compounded by the recent ECJ
judgment this month in the case brought by Privacy International.
In future, data exporters will have to rely on standard contractual
clauses. Relying on standard contractual clauses in healthcare is
simply not acceptable. Relevant to Amendment 72 in particular,
there is a common assumption that, apart from any data adequacy
issues, data stored in the UK is subject only to UK law. This is
not the case: in March 2018, the US Government enacted the
Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act, or CLOUD Act, which
allows law enforcement agencies to demand access to data stored on
servers hosted by US-based tech firms, such as Amazon Web
Services, Microsoft and Google, regardless of the data’s
physical location and without issuing a request for mutual legal
assistance. In practice, data might be resident in the UK, but it
is still subject to US law.
Data cannot, therefore, simply be considered UK sovereign, and it
is notable that Amazon Web Services gave a full
response to more than 1,259 subpoenas, search warrants and court
orders between January and June of this year.
AWS’s own terms and conditions, which form part
of its agreements with the UK Government, do not commit to
keeping data in the region selected by government officials if
AWS is required by law to move the data
elsewhere in the world. Key and sensitive aspects of government
data, such as security and access rules, usage policies and
permissions, may also be transferred to the US without
Amazon having to seek advance permission.
Similarly, AWS has the right to request customer
data and provide support services from anywhere in the world.
The Cabinet Office Government Digital Service team, which sets
the Government’s digital policy, gives no guidance on where
government data should be hosted. It simply states that all data
categorised as official —the vast majority of government data,
but including law enforcement, biometric and patient data—is
suitable for the public cloud, and instructs its own staff simply
to use AWS, with no guidance given on where the
data must be hosted. The costs of AWS varies
widely, depending on the region selected—and the UK is one of the
most expensive regions. Regions are physically selected by the
technical staff, rather than the procurement team or the security
team. I should say that Amazon Web Services has
a contract with NHSX, so that should be set in this
context...
(Lab) [V]:...Last year, it was revealed that pharma
companies Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly paid the
Government for licences costing up to £330,000 each, in return
for anonymised health data. The Government, as has been said
earlier, have also given Amazon access to healthcare
information, and DeepMind was given access to the data of 1.6
million patients at the Royal Free Hospital...
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Extract from Urgent
Question on Public Health Restrictions: Government Economic
Support
(Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op) [V]: May I be helpful to
the Chief Secretary, as I have been sometimes in the past? I am
the Member of Parliament for Huddersfield in west Yorkshire; we
are tier 2 and, like so many parts of the country, we will be
facing vast problems of youth unemployment. May I be very helpful
by asking him to look at Margaret Thatcher’s history? She
introduced a windfall profit tax on the banks. Why cannot he
introduce a windfall profit tax year on Amazon
the gambling sector—you name it; we know who has done well in
this crisis—and then use that money to fund a wonderful green
revolution, with new green businesses, new green training and new
green jobs for young people?
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (): I have
always found the hon. Gentleman constructive, and I welcome the
fact that he is looking at the fiscal position we face as a
country and how we may address that. It would be remiss of me,
given my responsibilities, to stray into the terrain of the next
Budget and tax-raising measures; I will leave that for my right
hon. Friend the Chancellor...
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