Data Protection Bill — Clause 14 — Automated Decision Making — Human Rights — 9 May 2018 at 18:00

The majority of MPs voted to allow automated decision making on matters involving individuals' human rights, and against clarifying the definition of automated decision making.

MPs were considering the Data Protection Bill[1].

The amendment rejected in this vote was:

  • Amendment 5, page 8, line 11, at end insert—
  • (2A) A decision that engages an individual’s rights under the Human Rights Act 1998 does not fall within Article 22(2)(b) of the GDPR (exception from prohibition on taking significant decisions based solely on automated processing for decisions that are authorised by law and subject to safeguards for the data subject’s rights, freedoms and legitimate interests).
  • (2B) A decision is ‘based solely on automated processing’ for the purposes of this section if, in relation to a data subject, there is no meaningful input by a natural person in the decision-making process.”

The rejected amendment was accompanied by the following explanatory statement:

  • This amendment would ensure that where human rights are engaged by automated decisions these are human decisions and provides clarification that purely administrative human approval of an automated decision does make an automated decision a ‘human’ one.

Article 22[3] of the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) begins:

  • (1)The data subject shall have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning him or her or similarly significantly affects him or her.
  • (2)Paragraph 1 shall not apply if the decision:
  • a) is necessary for entering into, or performance of, a contract between the data subject and a data controller;
  • b) is authorised by Union or Member State law to which the controller is subject and which also lays down suitable measures to safeguard the data subject’s rights and freedoms and legitimate interests; or
  • c) is based on the data subject’s explicit consent.
  • ...

Clause 14 of the Bill set out safeguards applying to situations where United Kingdom law authorises automated decision making, and Article 22(2)(b) applies. The safeguards are notification that an automated decision has been made, and provisions for reconsideration by a human. The rejected new subclause (2A) sought to exclude decisions engaging Human Rights under the Human Rights Act 1998 from the exemption from automated decision making.

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Debate in Parliament |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Con299 (+2 tell) 0095.3%
DUP10 00100.0%
Green0 10100.0%
Independent1 50100.0%
Lab0 231089.9%
LDem0 10083.3%
PC0 40100.0%
SNP0 30 (+2 tell)091.4%
Total:310 281092.8%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
no rebellions

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