Reform UK's free energy bills competition may violate data protection laws

Lawyers and data experts have warned that Reform UK may be breaching data protection laws through a competition offering to pay winners' energy bills for a year. The lottery, announced by Nigel Farage to promote party policy, requires entrants to disclose their names and contact details, along with sensitive information about their past voting habits and future intentions.

In a public statement, of which extracts have contributed to the article, Mariano delli Santi, Legal and Policy Officer at Open Rights Group, said: "Reform are asking the public to hand over sensitive data about their voting habits without being transparent about how it will be used. This is a clear breach of transparency obligations under UK data protection law. Nothing in their privacy policy suggests they are not acting unlawfully in many other ways.

"Political opinions are among the most sensitive types of personal data, and voters must be able to engage in campaigns without feeling pressured to trade their privacy for the chance of material benefit. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) must investigate and take a stand against political parties exploiting data in this way.

"Aside from the potential breach of data protection law, offering financial incentives in exchange for people's political views risks turning democratic participation into a data-harvesting exercise. Free and fair elections depend on trust, transparency, and genuine consent not competitions that blur the line between campaigning and profiling."

Data protection barrister and author Eleonor Duhs agreed with ORG, adding: "You have to be clear, open and honest about how and why you are collecting data and you shouldn't be collecting more data than you need. If you say your purpose is a raffle, why are they asking for people's voting intention? That seems to go beyond the purpose of the raffle.

"There are different categories of personal data under UK GDPR – your political opinions are given more protection than other sorts of data. There is a question mark about on what basis are they processing this data. The basis of which you can process this more sensitive data is very restrictive."

Reform UK has defended the contest, stating it is entirely confident the competition is legal and compliant with electoral laws regarding voter bribery. A spokesperson for the ICO confirmed that all political parties must comply with data protection law when collecting personal information for campaigning and advised concerned individuals to raise complaints directly with the party or the regulator.

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