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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether commitments in the UK–Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement provide grounds for a legal challenge to the UK’s measures for the protection of personal data under the Data Protection Act (2018); and what assessment they have made of whether the UK's existing data regulations meet the requirements specified in Article 8.84 of that Agreement.

UK domestic data protection laws enshrined in the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR are unchanged by the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which recognises the importance of protecting personal data and commits both parties to “maintain a legal framework that provides for the protection of personal information”.

Under CEPA article 8.84, the UK may adopt measures restricting data flows to achieve a legitimate public policy objective, including personal data protection.