Needing some help please

Since my debate in Parliament on 13th Jan 2025, I've been waiting for a date with Ministers as promised to discuss my JoolsLaw campaign. 

In parliament, Chris Bryant, Minister of State for Data Protection and Telecoms, said they would discuss this in the Bill committee.

Chris Bryant in Parliament

I arrive at the Bill committee to be told it wasn't going to be discussed, but he would ensure a meeting before the report stage

Now I have finally been given a date of 15th May for my meeting, but have found out that the report stage is 7th May. 

I’m not sure if this is my last chance to raise this.  Max Wilkinson (my MP) suggested that all I could do was ask people to write to their MP to request this amendment on the 7th.  So I have drafted a template email for people to use.  

Please email your MP today and ask them to support the Jools’ Law amendment.

You can copy this wording:

Dear [MP’s Name],

I am writing to ask for your support in backing Jools’ Law, a vital amendment to the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill that would give bereaved parents timely access to their deceased child’s social media data, particularly when the child has died in sudden, unexplained, or tragic circumstances.

Ellen Roome, whose 14-year-old son Jools Sweeney took his own life in April 2022, has been campaigning tirelessly for this change. Minister Chris Bryant stated on record in Parliament that he would arrange a meeting with Ellen before the report stage of the Bill on 7th May. Unfortunately, that meeting now looks unlikely to take place before the deadline.

Currently, social media data can only be requested by a Coroner or the police. But in many tragic cases, including Ellen’s, no such request is made—often because authorities are unaware of the urgency, or are too stretched. I understand that social media platforms may delete data after 90 days unless it is specifically preserved, meaning potentially vital evidence can be lost forever.

Ellen’s amendment would ensure that:

• When a child dies, social media data is automatically preserved and

• That data is requested and made available as part of the inquest process.

• Parents would be treated as persons of interest, able to access this data to help understand their child’s final days.

This is not just about grief; it’s about truth. This data could help identify signs of bullying, grooming, online abuse, or harmful internet challenges—information that may be crucial to the inquest and to a family’s understanding of what happened.

Please act now to support this amendment and help stop other families from being left with unanswered questions after unimaginable loss.

Kind regards,

[Your Full Name]

[Your Address and Postcode]

Thank you to anyone reading this and trying to help.