Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what protections are in the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement to ensure that citizens’ data is protected in the event that companies decide to transfer that data abroad; and if she will make a statement.

The UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) ensures that data can flow between the countries while maintaining high data protection standards. The deal does not mandate that data must flow, but rather the provisions clear the way for the flow of data between both countries for business purposes; when data needs to flow across a border it can do so without coming up against unjustified barriers. CEPA does not interfere with the high level of protection afforded to personal data when it is transferred out of the UK under the UK's data protections laws.