Asked by: Lord Allan of Hallam (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to develop new bilateral agreements to facilitate transfers of personal data between businesses in the UK and the United States after 31 December.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
International data transfers are vitally important to global economies and societies and we look forward to developing and supporting mechanisms in the future that can best facilitate international data transfers. The UK Government is committed to ensuring high data protection standards and supporting UK organisations on international data transfer issues.
The UK Government is working with international partners, including the United States and other stakeholders on initiatives that reduce the burdens and barriers on organisations transferring personal data (especially in priority sectors such as tech, manufacturing, finance and health, which are particularly reliant on data flows). This is so that we can unlock the value of data while also providing trust and confidence that personal data is protected.
From the end of the transition period, the UK will have an independent policy on data protection and data transfers, including the ability to conclude its own data adequacy agreements.
Asked by: Lord Allan of Hallam (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the likelihood of legal challenges from privacy advocates against transfers of personal data between businesses in the EU and the UK after 31 December.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
At the end of the transition period, UK domestic law will treat EU (and wider EEA) states and institutions as adequate on a transitional basis for the purposes of the UK GDPR, so personal data can continue to flow from the UK to the EEA without further safeguards needing to be implemented.
In order for the free flow of personal data from the EEA to the UK to continue at the end of the transition period, we are seeking an adequacy decision from the EU under the GDPR. Our view is that the UK more than meets the ‘essentially equivalent’ adequacy test. However, if the EU has not made an adequacy decision in respect of the UK before the end of the transition period, there are alternative mechanisms which organisations in the EU/EEA can use to lawfully continue to send personal data to the UK from 1 January 2021. Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are the most common legal safeguard and will be the relevant mitigation for most organisations.
These measures should address any potential risk of challenge from privacy advocates.