Peer Review VI
“The Government failed in its effort to assuage concern regarding its measures to address non-consensual deepfake intimate imagery, with Baroness Owen securing support for several further amendments to the Government’s proposal to address solicitation, to remove the reasonable excuse defence and enhance sentencing. The Bill now progresses to the House of Commons for further scrutiny. ”
The Data (Use and Access) Bill had its Third Reading in the House of Lords on 05 February 2025.
In light of the concerns raised at the Report stage, the Government made certain concessions, introducing its own amendments to impose higher standards of data protection by design in connection with information society services likely to be accessed by children, and to criminalise the non-consensual creation of purported intimate images of adults. In relation to the latter, however, the Government was defeated when Baroness Owen secured the provision’s extension to address the solicitation of such images, the removal from the provision of a “reasonable excuse” defence in circumstances where a defendant intentionally creates the purported intimate image, the victim does not consent and the defendant does not reasonably believe that the victim consents and the amendment of the sentencing provisions to provide for a term of imprisonment in addition or in the alternative to the originally proposed fine.
With those amendments the Bill was passed and sent to the House of Commons for consideration.
Access our comprehensive briefing on the Data (Use and Access) Bill, and our unofficial Data (Use and Access) Bill Keeling schedules showing a mark up of the changes that the Bill (as introduced) would make to the UK GDPR, Data Protection Act 2018 and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR) respectively.
Keep up to date with developments as the Data (Use and Access) Bill progresses through Parliament on our Data Protection Reform page in our Resources section.
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