As many of you will know, the Chartered Institute of Fundraising has been engaging with government ministers and House of Lords peers in recent months, championing for an amendment to the Data Use and Access Bill that will extend the soft opt-in to email marketing clause to charities.
We are delighted to tell members that the government has agreed to the amendment as put forward by Lord Clement-Jones, and this extension will now apply to charities.
Last year, the new administration removed this vital clause from their updated version of the previous government’s Data Protection and Digital Information Bill due to concerns that it would extend too much freedom to political parties to communicate with people.
In November, we wrote to the Secretary of State for the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, outlining our concerns around the removal of the clause and urged him to reconsider this.
This was followed up by a letter to Baroness Jones, the lead minister for this Bill in the House of Lord, and as I updated last week, engagement with Lord Clement-Jones, who has been a vocal champion of the sector in regards to this Bill.
This is a significant win for the sector and will finally put charities on a level playing field with commercial organisations which have benefitted from soft opt-in since the introduction of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations back in 2003.
Crucially, it shows a willingness from the government to listen to the sector at a time when it is facing multiple challenges to deliver services amid rocketing demand. This will allow charities to communicate more widely with supporters and share the vital work they are doing.
The Bill is approaching the final stage in the House of Lords and will shortly be passed to the House of Commons.
We have engaged closely with a number of members on this work and there is no doubt your comments and feedback have had an impact on this decision.
The Data and Marketing Association (DMA) led the calls for this amendment, and we would like to thank them for championing the sector so fiercely.