Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the decision of the European Court of Justice of 6 October 2020 on the UK’s retention of data, what steps he is taking to secure a data-sharing agreement with the EU after the end of the transition period.

The European Court of Justice issued a ruling on 6 October on the UK’s bulk communications data regime operated by the UK’s intelligence services and its use for protecting national security.

The ruling relates to a previous power (in the Telecommunications Act 1984) that has since been replaced by provisions in the Investigatory Powers Act 2016.

The ruling has no immediate direct impact on the work of our security and intelligence agencies as it will now be referred back to the UK courts (the Investigatory Powers Tribunal) for them to consider its effect on the UK’s current bulk communications data regime.

Talks with the EU on our future data sharing relationship (“adequacy decisions”) continue and the process is moving forward. If agreed, these will permit the continued free flow of personal data from the EU/EEA to the UK.

The adequacy process involves the European Commission assessing the UK’s data protection framework to assure that we are at least “essentially equivalent” to EU standards. We are considering any implications of the ruling on this process.