Prince Charles, in giving the Queen’s Speech on 11 May 2022, announced the government’s intention to reform UK data protection laws. The purpose of the reforms is to:
The main elements of the Bill are:
The government sees the GDPR as a highly complex and prescriptive piece of legislation which encourages excessive paperwork, and creates burdens on businesses with little benefit to citizens. As the UK has now left the EU, the data protection framework can be reformed in order to reduce burdens on businesses.
Comment:
The contents of the Bill are not yet available and it remains to be seen quite how far these reforms will go. It is one thing (for example) to reduce paperwork, and remove the need for irritating cookie banners (a couple of the potential targets of the Bill), but another to go too far and put at risk the UK’s adequacy ruling that allows the free flow of data from the EU. In the end, the reforms may be helpful but relatively modest.
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