UK Parliament / Open data

Trade Bill

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, for her speech and amendments. As she says, the provisions in the Bill are quite widely drawn, and the amendments stop information on documents relating to legal professional privilege being disclosed. I well understand the sensitivity of legal professional privilege. All information between a lawyer and their client must be handled with care and confidentiality, so we will be listening carefully to whether the Minister’s response alleviates the concerns of the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh. I suspect that her amendments are probing but, as the noble Baroness, Lady Bowles, said, they touch on sensitive issues.

4 pm

I will take this opportunity to ask the Minister a question on Clause 7. The Government have suggested that export information could be used for trade promotion. That does not seem unreasonable, on the face of it, but we need to understand it better. I hope that the Minister can go into more detail about the type of promotion that this can be used for, because I can see that there might be privileged sensitivities. Who will the information target? Will individuals be notified if their information is being used in this way? We need more reassurance on this to let through the Bill as it is currently drafted.

About this proceeding contribution

Reference

806 cc1244-5 

Session

2019-21

Chamber / Committee

House of Lords chamber
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