Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will commission research on the implementation of laws on the right to be forgotten in European countries.

Under the UK’s data protection legislation, people have the right to request organisations to erase their personal data, for example when its use is no longer necessary. The right to be forgotten is not absolute and organisations may refuse a request where they need to retain it, for example to comply with a legal obligation or for reasons of public interest in the area of public health. The UK’s legislation on the right to be forgotten is identical to the legislation which applies in EU countries under the EU GDPR. If a person is dissatisfied with the way that an organisation has considered their request for erasure, they can complain to the data protection regulator, which in the UK is the Information Commissioner’s Office.

We have no plans to commission research on the implementation of laws on the right to be forgotten in European countries.