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Lord Lucas (Con)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 21 January 2025

Debate

Data (Use and Access) Bill [HL]

Contribution

My Lords, in moving Amendment 6 in my name I will also to speak to Amendment 8. This section of the Bill deals with digital verification services, and the root word there is verify/veritas—truth. Digital verification input must be truthful for the digital system to work. It is fundamental. One can find all sorts of workarounds for old analogue systems. They are very flexible. With digital, one has to be precise. Noble Lords may remember the case in November of baby Lilah from Sutton-in-Ashfield, who was registered at birth as male by accident, as she was clearly female. The family corrected this on the birth register by means of a marginal note. There is no provision in law to correct an error on a birth certificate other than a marginal note. That works in analogue—it is there on the certificate—but in digital these are separate fields. In the digital systems, her sex is recorded as male.

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