Data (Use and Access) Bill CCLM: motion to insist Commons Amendment 52

Parliament voted on 14 May 2025 to insist on Commons Amendment 52 to the Data (Use and Access) Bill, overriding the House of Lords, which had rejected that amendment and proposed its own alternatives, known as Lords amendments 52B and 52C. The motion passed by 366 votes to 98. The vote was taken as part of the Bill's final ping-pong stage, the process by which the two chambers exchange amendments until they reach agreement, and was grouped with several other motions on disputed Lords changes. Amendment 52 relates to provisions within the Bill, though the detailed content of the amendment itself is not set out in the available record beyond its connection to Clause 28 and the Digital Verification Services trust framework, and the fact that it engaged Commons financial privilege. The Lords had disagreed with the Commons version and proposed amendments 52B and 52C in its place. By insisting on its own amendment, the Commons rejected both alternatives. A committee was subsequently appointed to draw up formal reasons to be conveyed to the Lords explaining the Commons position. The vote divided almost entirely along government and opposition lines. All 265 Labour Party members and 33 Labour and Co-operative Party members who voted backed the motion, as did all 50 Liberal Democrats, all 5 SNP members, all 3 Plaid Cymru members, and all 3 Green Party members recorded as voting. The 89 Conservatives and 7 Reform UK members who voted opposed it. No Conservative or Reform UK member voted aye, and no Labour, Liberal Democrat, SNP, Plaid Cymru, or Green member voted no. The motion was part of a broader set of government victories in the same sitting, including a motion to disagree with Lords amendment 43B, which passed 304 to 68, and a motion to disagree with Lords amendment 49B on AI and copyright, which passed 297 to 168.