Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government with which countries the UK has no data sharing agreements.

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 (which implements the EU’s 1995 Data Protection Directive), personal data can be transferred to countries within the European Economic Area and with other countries or territories that have an ‘adequate’ level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data. The Data Protection Bill currently before Parliament will provide for the continuation of these arrangements under the new EU framework, the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Directive, from May 2018. The UK is currently party to EU adequacy decisions that enable data sharing with Andorra, Argentina, Faroe Islands, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Israel, Jersey, New Zealand, Switzerland and Uruguay. The EU has reached partial findings of adequacy in relation to Canada, and in relation to the USA for data transfers under the Privacy Shield Framework. The UK is also party to several EU agreements on Passenger Name Records with the US, Australia and Canada (PNR) and on law enforcement (EU-US Umbrella Agreement).