UK to reform data protection, throwing EU adequacy ruling into doubt
The UK’s legislative agenda for the next year includes a data reform bill that could cast doubts on the future of the EU’s data adequacy ruling, the decision that continued to facilitate data transfers across the Channel after the UK left the bloc in January 2020.
Following the country’s departure from the EU, the UK government introduced a bill implementing the GDPR, the EU’s data protection law, but Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced in 2020 his willingness to deviate from the EU framework and develop separate policies.
EU adopted its data adequacy decision, ruling that the UK’s data protection as it stood was sufficient to continue EU-UK data transfers. But it put in place measures to allow the Commission to reverse this decision should UK policy change substantially. One such example is a ‘sunset clause’, making the decision automatically expire in 2024, at which point renewal will be contingent on the UK having kept in place comparable standards.
Source: UK to reform data protection, throwing EU adequacy ruling into doubt – EURACTIV.com
