18 July, 2017
The EU Home Affairs Sub-Committee has said that the United Kingdom faces a "cliff edge" if it doesn't secure a transitional agreement with the European Union post-Brexit, putting businesses and government agencies at risk.
A committee of the upper house of parliament said on Tuesday, July 18 that Britain could be put at a competitive disadvantage and the police could lose access to intelligence, if the government failed to retain unhindered flows of data.
"The volume of data stored electronically and moving across borders has grown hugely over the last 20 years", Lord Jay said.
Crossbench peer and Committee chairman Michael Jay told The Financial Times "The government says the right things but we have had no evidence yet that it sees the potential seriousness of Brexit for data protection and is taking the necessary steps". "We urge the government to ensure that any transitional arrangements agreed during the withdrawal negotiations provide for continuity of data-sharing, pending the adoption of adequacy decisions in respect of the United Kingdom".
There was consensus among witnesses that the most effective way to achieve unhindered flows of data would be to secure adequacy decisions from the European Commission under Article 45 of the General Data Protection Regulation and Article 36 of the Police and Criminal Justice Directive, thereby confirming that the UK's data protection rules would offer an equivalent standard of protection to that available within the EU.
However, EU adequacy decisions can only be taken in respect of third countries - i.e. countries that are not member states - meaning that the United Kingdom could struggle to get such a decision secured at the time of exit, whilst it is still part of the Union.
But the panel warned that the police have no fallback option if such a deal isn't reached, so it also urged the government to seek to include data-protection arrangements in any transitional accord as the United Kingdom leaves the EU.
Three-quarters of the UK's cross-border data flows are with European Union countries, according to the report.
Lord Paul Condon was speaking after the publication of a House of Lords sub-committee report which said disruption to data sharing could harm cooperation on law enforcement.
In testimony to the inquiry in February 2017, digital minister Matt Hancock said the United Kingdom planned a full implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and was confident of agreements with the USA to ensure uninhibited data exchanges with the EU and the U.S. post-Brexit. It should start by seeking to secure a continuing role for the Information Commissioner's Office on the European Data Protection Board. As a member of the EU, the United Kingdom has access to databases like the Schengen Information System and the European Criminal Records Information System; it is important to retain this access post-Brexit.
It takes into account the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Police and Criminal Justice Direction (PCJ Directive) that will both come into force in May 2018, as well as the EU-US Privacy Shield and the EU-US Umbrella Agreement.
The UK government should also ensure look to "influence the development" of any new worldwide treaty on data protection that "could emerge as the end product of greater coordination between data protection authorities in the world's largest markets", the Committee said.
The UK government's long-term objective should be to influence the development of such a treaty, the report said.
