Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the EU General Data Protection Regulation on medical research; and if he will make a statement.

The Government is aware of the concerns raised by representatives of the research community about amendments to the proposed EU General Data Protection Regulation which could prevent health research involving personal data from taking place. Many of these concerns centre on amendments to the proposed Regulation that have been agreed by the Civil Liberties, Justice, and Home Affairs (LIBE) committee of the European Parliament.

The Government's view is that the ability of researchers to process personal data in the way that they are legitimately able to do so at present must be preserved. The Government remains attentive to the concerns raised and will continue to engage with representatives of the research community about the processing of personal data for medical research purposes under the proposed Regulation.