Lord Clement-Jones
Main Page: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Baroness Ramsey of Wall Heath (Lab)
I note my noble friend’s point about the safety, security and sovereignty of UK citizens’ data. This Government will continue to pay close attention to how UK citizens’ data is transferred overseas and processed by non-UK data controllers. For our adequacy decisions, DCMS undertakes active ongoing monitoring processes, including the tracking of changes to relevant legislative frameworks and case law within third countries.
Lord Clement-Jones (LD)
My Lords, we welcome the return of data protection to DCMS. The Government’s own Data (Use and Access) Act replaced the “essentially equivalent” test for adequacy for international data transfers with a lower threshold of “not materially lower”. Does the Minister accept that this weaker standard leaves UK citizens’ data more exposed to the gaps in foreign countries’ protections? What monitoring of that effect are the Government carrying out to safeguard real UK sovereignty over our data?
Baroness Ramsey of Wall Heath (Lab)
Our priority is the protection of UK citizens’ personal data, and we will monitor our adequacy decisions with this in mind. The DCMS has a statutory duty to monitor all our data adequacy decisions and a duty to amend or revoke them if the Secretary of State becomes aware that the standard has fallen below that of the UK GDPR. Officials are monitoring all existing adequacy decisions on an ongoing basis and the DCMS Secretary of State must be satisfied that the level of data protection afforded to UK data subjects in a given country or territory is not materially lower than that of the UK GDPR.