UK seeks close data protection partnership with EU after Brexit
Europe Editor BRITAIN will seek to remain “fully involved” in shaping EU data protection regulations after Brexit in a hugely ambitious attempt to retain the status quo for businesses, the Government announced yesterday.
The plan, which was set out in a position paper from the Department for Exiting the EU, was welcomed by tech industry chiefs, although they quickly warned it would not be easy or straightforward to accomplish.
The question of how both business and government will maintain legal cross-border data exchanges after Brexit remains one of the most pressing of the negotiations, with data flows the lifeblood of both trade and security ties. The 13-page position paper argues that the UK will depart the EU with
‘What the Government says it wants won’t be easy or straightforward – although it is not impossible’
rules on data-sharing at an “unprecedented point of alignment”, and will seek an early determination from the European side that flows will be maintained unimpeded immediately after Brexit.
Subsequently, Britain will seek to build a new, bespoke UK-EU model “which could build on” the existing model in which the European Commission grants “adequacy” status to noneu countries which it has determined comply with its data protection standards. The new model would allow the UK’S data authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), to be “fully involved in future EU regulatory dialogue”, with an “ongoing role” for the ICO with the existing network of EU data protection authorities.
The Government has conceded that no other non-eu country has such a role and that such an arrangement would be unique and unprecedented.
Antony Walker, deputy director of Tech UK which represents more than 1,000 Uk-based tech firms, welcomed the ambition of the proposals, but urged more detail.
“What the Government says it wants to achieve is positive, but we urgently need more detail on how we get there, because it won’t be easy or straightforward – although it is not impossible,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “There really is a mutual interest to getting a solution to these issues.”
Businesses hoping for a regulatory arbitrage on EU data rules after Brexit will be disappointed, with the Government making clear that it is seeking no additional privileges for the UK after its departure from the EU.
Instead, the Government believes it can use its “unique” alignment with the EU at the point of Brexit to win a seamless deal.
However, EU sources have cautioned that even though the UK will this year absorb the EU’S new General Data Protection Regulation into British law, a determination of “adequacy” after Brexit is not guaranteed.
As a non-eu country, any such designation will have to take into account the UK’S security establishment which has sweeping powers under the new 2016 Investigatory Powers Act.