Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to design a new, improved data privacy shield that takes on board concerns about the current EU–United States Privacy Shield before negotiating a trade deal with the government of the United States after Brexit, so that it safeguards individuals as well as providing for the promotion of the UK’s life science and technology sectors.

The Government has committed to maintaining a high level of data protection standards, which are set out in the Data Protection Act 2018.

These safeguards allow the public to have trust in how and why their data is used and it is important that we maintain them. Access and use of data should always be done lawfully, safely and securely. We reiterate that National Health Service data must always be held securely, with appropriate and strong privacy and cyber-security protections.

As the United Kingdom leaves the European Union we have made arrangements with the United States that will ensure that in both ‘deal’ and ‘no deal’ scenarios, transfers of personal data from the UK to US Privacy Shield participant organisations can continue to be made under the Privacy Shield Framework.