Government surveillance of bank accounts

That this House is deeply alarmed by new powers contained within the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill that would allow the Government to engage in the mass surveillance of tens of millions of people's bank accounts; notes that these new powers would force banks to spy on the 23 million individuals in the welfare system, including those who are disabled, sick, caregivers, jobseekers and pensioners, as well as on the private banking data of people related to them including partners, parents, landlords and other associates; further notes that this will be reliant on systems using artificial intelligence to monitor the accounts of all customers to flag activity considered suspicious by the Department for Work and Pensions and believes that this risks creating a Post Office Horizon-style scandal where innocent people suffered wrongful prosecutions, financial ruin and reputational damage; believes that this is a huge infringement on an individual’s right to financial privacy and violates the principle of a presumption of innocence that people should not be spied on unless the police suspect wrongdoing; rejects the idea of treating the disabled, sick, carers or those looking for work as criminals by default; further believes that the Government already has significant powers to review the bank statements of fraud suspects under existing laws; and calls on the Government to remove these powers from the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill.