Lamb: Forensic science regulator needs data protection exemption

The Home Office should make sure that the data protection bill does not harm the work of the forensic science regulator, Norman Lamb, the chairman of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, has said.

In a letter to Susan Williams, the minister for countering extremism, released on 4 April, Lamb said that the regulator Gillian Tully had raised concern that the bill, which is due to be considered at report stage in the House of Commons, might hamper her work.

The data protection bill transfers the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation into UK law. Both pieces of legislation tighten rules over the privacy of people’s data, strengthening the rights of individuals to control how it is used and including a so-called right to be forgotten when they no longer want their data to be processed. But a number of bodies will be exempt from this so that they can continue using people’s data for immigration, prosecution and regulation purposes.