New Data Protection Act announced in Queen’s Speech to be in alignment with GDPR

June 22, 2017, Categories data protection, Data Protection Act 1998, EU General Data Protection Regulation, Legal update, News No comments

The British Government signalled its intention to replace the Data Protection Act 1998 with a new Data Protection Act that will be in alignment with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Home Office will be the relevant ‘Lead Departments’ overseeing the passage of the Data Protection Bill through Parliament.

“A new law will ensure that the United Kingdom retains its world-class regime protecting personal data”, said Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II in her speech to both the House of Commons and the House of Lords on Wednesday 21 June 2017.

The Bill will fulfil a manifesto commitment to ensure the UK has a data protection regime that is fit for the 21st century.

The Bill will ensure that our data protection framework is suitable for our new digital age and cement the UK’s position at the forefront of technological innovation, international data sharing and protection of personal data; strengthen rights and empower individuals to have more control over their personal data including a right to be forgotten when individuals no longer want their data to be processed, provided that there are no legitimate grounds for retaining it; establish a new data protection regime for non-law enforcement data processing, replacing the Data Protection Act 1998; and modernise and update the regime for data processing by law enforcement agencies.

In an associated briefing issued to accompany the Queen’s Speech, the Government made the following statement:

The purpose of the Bill is to:

Make our data protection framework suitable for our new digital age, allowing citizens to better control their data.

The main benefits of the Bill would be:

To meet the manifesto commitments to give people new rights to “require major social media platforms to delete information held about them at the age of 18” and to “bring forward a new data protection law”.
To ensure that our data protection framework is suitable for our new digital age, and cement the UK’s position at the forefront of technological innovation, international data sharing and protection of personal data.
To allow police and judicial authorities to continue to exchange information quickly and easily with our international partners in the fight against terrorism and other serious crimes.
To implement the General Data Protection Regulation and the new Directive which applies to law enforcement data processing, meeting our obligations while we remain an EU member state and helping to put the UK in the best position to maintain our ability to share data with other EU member states and internationally after we leave the EU.

The main elements of the Bill are:

To establish a new data protection regime for non-law enforcement data processing, replacing the Data Protection Act 1998.
The new rules strengthen rights and empower individuals to have more control over their personal data, including a right to be forgotten when individuals no longer want their data to be processed, provided that there are no legitimate grounds for retaining it.
To modernise and update the regime for data processing by law enforcement agencies. The regime will cover both domestic processing and cross-border transfers of personal data.
To update the powers and sanctions available to the Information Commissioner. Territorial extent and application
The Bill would apply to the UK. Data protection is a reserved matter.
Over 70% of all trade in services are enabled by data flows, meaning that data protection is critical to international trade.
The digital sector contributed £118 billion to the economy and employed over 1.4 million people across the UK in 2015.

Subject to Parliamentary time, the new Data Protection Bill should appear on the statute books in the New Year 2018 and ahead of the full enforcement of the GDPR on 25 May 2018.

For information about the GDPR Transition Programme at Henley Business School, click here.

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