Data Protection Post-Brexit: What You Need To Know (And Do) For Now

Introduction

The UK's newly acquired status as a 'third-country' post-Brexit has future implications for data transfers between the UK and the EU. We say future because the deal that was struck with the EU on Christmas Eve was so last minute that there was insufficient time to reach agreement on all issues relating to the UK's departure from the EU. Data protection was one of the things that was put on the 'Do it Later' list.

Last year, the EU had been intending to complete an assessment of the adequacy of the UK's data protection regime to see if it was in line with EU law. Instead, due to time pressure, a bridging mechanism was put in place on 24 December 2020 that introduced a quasi-moratorium, which permits the free flow of data between the UK and EU member-states to continue unabated until potentially 30 June 2021.