The UK government has welcomed the draft UK data adequacy decisions on the processing of personal data recently published by the European Commission.
If adopted, the Commission’s decisions will allow personal data to continue flowing freely from the EU to the UK, something that will come as a considerable relief to many UK businesses.
The government has welcomed the European Commission’s recognition of adequacy of the UK’s data protection standards, a finding that is not entirely surprising , given that the UK’s data protection system currently mirrors the EU’s.
Positive data adequacy decisions under both GDPR and the Law Enforcement Directive (LED) will allow personal data to continue flowing freely from both the EU and the wider European Economic Area (EEA) to the UK – without any additional compliance costs for UK firms or knock-on effects for their clients.
The Commission’s draft decisions will now be run past the European Data Protection Board for a ‘non-binding opinion’ before going to EU member states for formal approval. The UK government has urged the EU to complete this process as quickly as possible.
In the meantime (at least until June 30), organisations based in the UK will still be able to receive data from the EU thanks to the ‘adequacy bridge’ agreed as part of the 2020 trade and co-operation agreement.
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