The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Lloyd of Effra) (Lab)

My Lords, these regulations make three important amendments to the information sharing powers in Part 5, Chapter 1 of the Digital Economy Act 2017. The core aim of these regulations is to help the Government to support households facing financial hardship, improving access to support for those eligible and ensuring that public services can respond more effectively to people’s needs. Too often, people do not receive the right support because the information needed to identify them is held by different public authorities. Enabling relevant information to be shared safely and legally will help support to reach the right people more quickly and effectively. On the measure related to the delivery of energy debt relief schemes, Part 5, Chapter 1 of the Digital Economy Act already provides a well-established framework for information sharing to support public service delivery. Under Section 36, specified public bodies can share information with energy suppliers with the intention that the suppliers use the information in connection with a prescribed fuel poverty measure to support households experiencing fuel poverty. None of the fuel poverty measures currently allows this power to be used to support households with energy debt. These regulations will amend Section 36 to create a new fuel poverty measure that will enable information to be shared between certain public authorities—including the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero—and energy suppliers to enable households eligible for support under an energy debt relief scheme to be identified and to deliver support to them. An example of a scheme that could be facilitated by this change is a proposed debt relief scheme that Ofgem consulted on in winter 2025. While the detailed operational design of the scheme is currently being developed by DESNZ and Ofgem, its ambition is clear: to help eliminate between £500 million and £1 billion of energy debt, remove administrative burdens and deliver meaningful relief to households struggling with energy arrears and financial hardship. The second measure will amend the Digital Government (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2018 to enable DSIT to rely on the Act’s fuel poverty objective to share information with certain other public authorities for the purpose of assisting people living in fuel poverty. This will support initiatives such as the National Data Library’s kickstarter project, which seeks to bring together cross-government data, including earnings, benefits and energy usage, which will enable government to identify households in fuel poverty and to target energy bill support more effectively. I should note that the draft regulations were laid when responsibility for the relevant government data function sat within DSIT. Following the Written Statement by my noble friend Lady Smith of Basildon on 21 July, this function is being transferred to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The regulations will be made as currently drafted and any necessary amendments to reflect the transfer of functions will be made separately. This does not affect the policy intent or operation of the measure. The third technical measure will also amend the 2018 regulations to expressly add DESNZ to the fuel poverty objective. The relevant function was transferred to DESNZ when it was created in 2023 but the regulations were not consequentially amended at that time. This measure will not have any immediate operational impact, but we are taking the opportunity to make the change in the interests of legal certainty. More broadly, these measures reflect the Government’s commitment to make better use of data to improve public service delivery. The information sharing is with a clear public purpose: helping households struggling with energy debt, while supporting action to tackle fuel poverty and outcomes for citizens. The Government have undertaken appropriate engagement on each of the three measures. For the energy debt relief scheme measure, a public consultation was conducted. Respondents were overwhelmingly supportive of the proposal, recognising the important role that information sharing can play in identifying eligible households and delivering targeted support to those struggling with energy debt. To add DSIT and DESNZ to the list of public authorities connected with the fuel poverty objective measure, the Government consulted the specific consultees, as required by Section 44 of the Digital Economy Act—namely, the Information Commissioner’s Office, the devolved Governments and HMRC. Consultees were supportive of the proposal and content for it to proceed. Furthermore, I also wish to reassure noble Lords that robust safeguards will continue to apply to all information sharing undertaken under these powers. Part 5, Chapter 1, of the Digital Economy Act contains a strong framework for governing the sharing of data. The powers in Chapter 1 permit information to be shared only by a limited number of bodies, mostly public authorities, and only for the purposes specified in the Act. There are also statutory restrictions on the re-use and onward disclosure of information received under the powers in Chapter 1. As well as this, any public body exercising the data-sharing powers must adhere to existing data protection legislation, namely the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. It must also have regard to the statutory code of practice under the Digital Economy Act, which emphasises requirements regarding data privacy, security, governance and transparency. The code of practice sets out processes that bodies exercising the powers are expected to follow, including recording information-sharing agreements made under these powers in a publicly available register, providing transparency about how the powers are used. These safeguards help ensure the responsible use of data by allowing information to be shared only where appropriate and subject to robust protections, helping to maintain public trust. In terms of scrutiny, the regulations were considered by both the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments and the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, neither of which drew them to the special attention of the House, with the latter including an information paragraph only in its report. These regulations will enable better use of information to help households facing energy-related hardship. They will allow for information to be shared to identify eligible households, improve the delivery of targeted assistance and support collaboration between public authorities. In doing so, they will help ensure that support reaches those who need it most, while upholding the highest standards of privacy, with information handled lawfully, responsibly and securely.