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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether UK citizens’ data is afforded the same degree of protection in Japan under the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement as EU data is under the Japan-EU Free Trade Agreement.

The EU-Japan agreement does not include data provisions. There is simply a review clause in the free flow of data article that commits the parties to assess the need for the inclusion of provisions on the free flow of data in the agreement within 3 years.

UK citizens’ data protection rights are not impacted by the agreement with Japan and UK data protection standards will not change as a result of the agreement. The UK data protection regime - enshrined in the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR - will continue to apply.