Britain is at ‘end of queue’ for data deal

BRITAIN is at “the end of the queue” for a deal with Brussels that would allow for the free flow of data across borders, an EU official has warned.

Wojciech Wiewiorowski, the EU’S data protection supervisor, said the UK was “13th in the row” of countries attempting to broker data deals with Europe. Allowing Britain to fast-track the process simply because of Brexit “would be a little bit unfair towards those who have already prepared themselves for this process”, he told the Financial Times.

Data can flow freely across the EU if companies abide by General Data Protection Regulation. GDPR is being incorporated in UK law and Britain has said it will continue to allow all data to flow to Europe. However, Brussels is yet to match that promise.

A deal on data will prove crucial to UK businesses. According to industry group Techuk, more than three quarters of UK data transfers are with EU countries. Cross-border data flows account for 3.8pc of GDP and allow every industry to transfer information about customers and services.

The UK will begin trade negotiations with the EU next year, but officials in Brussels believe that leaves little time to negotiate a deal before the end of the transition period set by Boris Johnson.

In August, a study by University College London said that potential problems with data transfers post-brexit have received “minimal attention”.

“UK economic activity is dependent on these flows. But disruption would place immense compliance burdens on organisations that would have to invest in legal and administrative fees to ensure EU-UK data transfers remained lawful,” according to the UCL study.