Shake-Up of UK Data Protection Regime

The government has announced plans to shake-up the UK’s data protection regime following Brexit. A consultation on the scope of the new regime opened on 10 September and is due to close on 19 November. A key objective of the intended reforms is to open up new data transfer markets for the UK whilst maintaining the high data protection standards currently found in the UK GDPR. At present, the UK has adequacy arrangements (which allow for international data transfers) with 42 countries but plans to put in place new arrangements with (amongst others) the US, Australia and Singapore. In other data protection news, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has approved the appointment of John Edwards as the new Information Commissioner. Elizabeth Denham is the UK’s current Information Commissioner. Her tenure will come to an end on 31 October 2021. Mr Edwards is currently the Privacy Commissioner for New Zealand.