Business: Data Protection

(asked on 31st October 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate his Department has made on the potential economic cost to businesses who transfer data across borders in Europe in the event of the UK Government not reaching an adequacy decision with the EU before 29 March 2019.


Answered by
Margot James Portrait
Margot James
This question was answered on 5th November 2018

EU exports to the UK of data reliant services were worth approximately £32bn (€36bn) in 2016. This includes a diverse range of sectors such as finance, telecoms and entertainment, which benefit from the free flow of data between the UK and EU.

In the event of the UK reaching a final Withdrawal Agreement with the EU, data flows between the UK and the EU would continue as they do presently until the end of the Implementation Period, with no additional restrictions or requirements. The UK will continue to make the case for the European Commission to begin and finalise an adequacy assessment as soon as possible, to provide the earliest possible reassurance that data flows can continue after the Implementation Period.

If the UK leaves the EU in March 2019 with no agreement in place regarding future arrangements for data protection, the UK would at the point of exit continue to allow the free flow of personal data from the UK to the EU. However, in the absence of an adequacy decisions organisations would have to rely on alternative transfer mechanisms to transfer personal data from the EU to the UK. More detail can be found in the government’s technical notice on data protection.

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