The Data Protection and Digital Information Bill (the “Data Reform Bill”), which was making its way through Parliament, has now been stalled.
This follows announcements made during the Conservative Party conference on Monday 3 October, that the Government will be replacing the GDPR with bespoke privacy rules to protect consumer privacy, whilst retaining the UK’s adequacy status so that businesses can trade freely.
The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Michelle Donelan, has emphasised that her focus remains on driving economic growth through reform of existing data protection laws.
The Data Reform Bill had been subject to scrutiny, as many felt it did not go far enough to relieve the administrative burden of data protection compliance on businesses, so perhaps this is an opportunity to address those concerns. Michelle Donelan’s intentions are clear: “Businesses won’t have to wrap their heads around complicated legislation – this is about simplification”.
We will need to wait and see how far the proposed business-friendly regime departs from the current GDPR position, and also the reforms that were proposed under the Data Reform Bill. However there is undoubtedly an appetite to utilise the UK’s new found, post-Brexit legislative freedom.
For more information, please contact our Privacy & Data team.
