Member

When fulfilling our duty to protect public money, we must also balance individuals’ rights to privacy. These powers will include robust safeguards, reporting mechanisms and independent oversight to give confidence that they will be used fairly and effectively. The Information Commissioner himself has welcomed the changes made to previous iterations of the eligibility verification measure, which addressed many of the concerns he had had with the previous Government’s Data Protection and Digital Information Bill. I must also highlight the importance of the measure from a fiscal perspective. It alone will save £940 million over the next five years and £500 million annually once fully rolled out.