EU: Digital Single Market

Lord Clement-Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 20th October 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

My Lords, we see the 16 headings as a good menu from which to choose. What we are hoping to see is some progress quarter by quarter. As I have already said, we see the priorities for the next few months to be copyright and consumer protection, but the other headings are also important because of the huge potential of digital to fuel innovation and growth across Europe and to help our competitive position.

[Lord Clement-Jones (LD)]

My Lords, would the Minister like to give the Government’s response to the recent case striking down safe harbour for data transfer, and does she believe that that will have a major impact on our ability within Europe to create a digital single market?

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

As the noble Lord suggests, this is a disappointing judgment. Companies need to be able to transfer data to third countries with appropriate safeguards. I discussed the judgment with businesses yesterday to better understand what they are facing. We will continue to engage. The Information Commissioner’s Office was also there and will update its guidance in the coming weeks. We will continue to press the Commission to talk to the United States—because it is an EU competence—to get clarity, but we are also making progress domestically.