News the European Commission has approved UK data adequacy decisions was today welcomed by the Law Society of England and Wales, as it heralds the continuation of the free flow of data from the European Economic Area (EEA) to Britain and Northern Ireland.
While some may welcome the government’s ambition to shake up the UK’s data protection regime, Westminster should be wary of drifting too far from the path charted by our US and European partners.
The revised version of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill has had its second reading in Parliament as the government presses on with post-Brexit changes, but critics remain sceptical that the EU will be convinced to maintain the UK's data adequacy agreement.
A web page linking Leave.EU to Cambridge Analytica has been leaked online after being deleted in the wake of the Facebook scandal.
Brexit bonfire of EU laws could let water companies conceal sewage discharges, campaigners warn
14/03/2023
The Environmental Information Regulation allows the public to demand data from private water companies, but it is at risk of being scrapped by the Government.
Turns out the UK government, under current prime minister Rishi Sunak, is not replacing the GDPR, as Michelle Donelan, his secretary of state for science, innovation and technology, implied last October.
A shadowy global operation involving big data, billionaire friends of Trump and the disparate forces of the Leave campaign influenced the result of the EU referendum. As Britain heads to the polls again, is our electoral process still fit for purpose?
Steptoe | Brexit One Year On
18/01/2023
However, this article seeks to describe, as far as possible, how Brexit has affected the business and regulatory environment across the full range of areas covered by Steptoe and Johnson practices so far, and to identify issues of potential future concern for companies.
A guide to Brexit and data flows
10/10/2018
Post-Brexit relations regarding data transfers and data protection are going to exercise one of the biggest economic impacts on the UK and the EU27 over the longer term.
Further amendments to the replacement for GDPR are likely, DCMS official says.
Concerns raised over government drive to implement distinct post-Brexit policy. / Legal experts say UK government plans to create new data protection laws will make more work and add costs for business, while also creating the possibility of challenges to data sharing between the EU and UK.
Is a big British version of GDPR likely to balance the demands of consumers, advertisers and media owners alike? We ask marketers what they think of the UK’s planned divergence.
British food safety and competition regulators are “struggling to recruit and retain the skills they need to regulate effectively” post-Brexit, according to a Westminster committee of MPs.
Brexit dividend? 'Newly independent' UK will be world's 'data hub', claims digital minister
06/10/2022
Amid inevitable talk of 'red tape' cutting at ruling party conference, data protection experts are concerned.
The announcement this week by culture secretary Michelle Donelan that the UK plans to replace GDPR with its own “business and consumer-friendly British data protection system” is bad news.
An analysis of the total cost to U.K. businesses if the country fails to gain an adequacy agreement from the European Commission once it leaves the bloc at the end of the year — creating barriers to inbound data flows from the EU — suggests the price in pure compliance terms could be between £1 billion and £1.6 billion.
Dorries et al are not wrong on the value of data to the economy, the trouble it’s less clear what they think exactly is so broken with GDPR, and just seem to think it’s a given that removing some of its processes will automatically result in billions of pounds of growth for businesses and the country.
Not evident in the statement is the inconvenient fact that diverging too far from the EU’s data protection regime — the General Data Protection Directive — could have consequences for UK businesses which regularly share data with units based in the EU or its economic area.
Post-Brexit trade deals have left “significant barriers” in place that are hampering digital trade to and from the UK, the City of London corporation warned today.
However, simply because we can diverge does not mean that we should diverge; the benefits are negligible at best. The likely result would be the United Kingdom no longer being recognised as a “trusted partner” in the field of data security and the end of a free flow of data.
Brexit split with EU over personal data risks harm to UK business and security, report warns
07/08/2022
Proposals ‘driven by desire to show benefit from Brexit’.
European Commission says failure to apply customs rules in Northern Ireland “significantly increases the risk of smuggling”.
European Commission vice-president says Brussels wants to get ‘Brexit done’ – while London refuses to talk about Northern Ireland.