Data Use and Access Bill: motion to disagree to Lords Amendment 49D

What happened: The House of Commons voted on 22 May 2025 to reject Lords Amendment 49D to the Data Use and Access Bill, by 195 votes to 124. This was a "motion to disagree," meaning MPs voted to send the amendment back to the House of Lords rather than accept the change peers had made to the Bill. The vote was part of the parliamentary process known as "ping-pong," in which a Bill passes back and forth between the two chambers until both agree on the same text.

Why it matters: Amendment 49D concerned the balance between enabling government and public bodies to access and share data, and protecting individuals' privacy. By rejecting the Lords' version, the Commons maintained the government's preferred approach to data access powers in the Bill. The Data Use and Access Bill is a significant piece of legislation intended to update the UK's data governance framework following Brexit, affecting how public services, businesses, and researchers can use personal and public data. The outcome of this vote determined which version of those provisions would continue through the legislative process.

The politics: The vote divided along clear party lines. Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs provided the government's majority, voting 194 to 2 in favour of rejecting the Lords amendment. All 57 voting Conservatives, all 51 voting Liberal Democrats, and smaller parties including Plaid Cymru, the Greens, the SNP, and Reform UK voted against the government, backing the Lords amendment instead. Two Labour MPs broke with their party to vote with the opposition. The vote reflects a recurring pattern in this Bill's passage, with subsequent divisions in June 2025 showing the same broad coalition holding as the Bill continued through further rounds of ping-pong.