Lords Committee to hear evidence on data protection after Brexit
Melanie May | 30 January 2017 | News
House of Lords EU Home Affairs Sub-Committee is to question Matt Hancock MP, Minister of State for Digital and Culture, on the European Union data protection package this Wednesday (1st February).
The UK will no longer be part of the EU-US Privacy Shield or the EU-US Umbrella Agreement once it leaves Europe, and it is assumed that the UK will be treated as a third country on all other data protection issues.
The purpose of the session therefore is to explore the Government’s views on the future arrangements for data sharing with the EU and the US and to identify the key safeguards in the EU’s new data protection package, which is due to be implemented in the UK by 2018.
According to the House of Lords, the Committee is likely to ask Mr Hancock the following questions:
- Assuming the UK will be treated as a third country post-Brexit, what will be the default position as a matter of law for data flows between the UK and the EU if we haven’t secured an adequacy decision at the point when we leave the EU?
- What changes will need to be made to the 1998 Data Protection Act to bring it into compliance with the GDPR and the Data Protection Directive and what timeline is the Government looking at to make the necessary changes?
- Will the Government be seeking to obtain an adequacy decision to enable data sharing between the UK and the EU after Brexit?
- What will be the arrangements for data sharing between the UK and the US after the UK leaves the EU?
The evidence sessions will start at 10:30am on Wednesday 1 February in the House of Lords.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.