Motion to Disagree with the Lords in their Amendment 49F (Data Use and Access Bill)

What happened: The House of Commons voted on 3 June 2025 to disagree with Lords Amendment 49F to the Data Use and Access Bill, rejecting a change the House of Lords had made to the legislation. The motion passed by 317 votes to 185, with the government's position prevailing. This vote was part of the ongoing parliamentary process known as ping-pong, in which a bill passes back and forth between the Commons and the Lords when the two chambers cannot agree on its final wording.

Why it matters: The Data Use and Access Bill governs how data can be collected, shared, and used across public and private sectors in the UK. Amendment 49F represented the Lords' attempt to modify the government's proposed framework for data access or protection, and by voting to disagree with it, the Commons maintained the government's preferred version of those provisions. The outcome has practical implications for organisations that handle personal data, for public bodies that seek to share information across services, and for individuals whose data is processed under the rules the bill establishes.

The politics: The vote divided almost entirely along party lines. Labour and Labour and Co-operative members provided 317 of the ayes, with just one Labour member voting against the government. Every Conservative (94), Liberal Democrat (66), and other opposition party member who voted did so against the government's position, including Greens, Reform UK, the DUP, Plaid Cymru, and the SNP. There were no notable cross-party alliances in favour of the government. This was the latest in a series of clashes over the bill's data provisions, following earlier disagreements on related amendments in May 2025, with a further Commons vote on related Lords amendments following on 10 June 2025.