MPs question ICO’s handling of Test and Trace data

More than 20 MPs have questioned the Information Commissioner’s Office role in holding the government to account for its failures in the NHS coronavirus Test and Trace programme.

The 22 MPs from four parties have sent a letter to Elizabeth Denham, the Information Commissioner, demanding that the government change the programme after it admitted failing to conduct a legally required impact assessment of its privacy implications.

The group calls on the ICO to consider fining the government ‘if it fails to adhere to the standards which the ICO is responsible for upholding’.

The letter, which was signed by MPs from the Liberal Democrats, Labour, Green party and Scottish National party, was arranged by the Open Rights Group, which successfully forced the government to admit its failure to perform a data protection impact assessment in July.

Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrat MP for St Albans, said: “During the coronavirus pandemic the government has seemingly played fast and loose with data protection measures that keep people safe. The public needs a data regulator with teeth: the ICO must stop sitting on its hands and start using its powers – to assess what needs to change and enforce those changes – to ensure that the government is using people’s data safely and legally.”