Commenting ahead of publication of the Government’s Future
Partnership Paper on data protection rules after Brexit, Allie
Renison, Head of EU and Trade Policy at the Institute of
Directors, said:
“The IoD agrees with the Government that our shared starting
point and deep integration with the EU on data flows should make
reaching a short-term agreement easier to negotiate. This is a
future partnership paper but it talks about proposing
arrangements for data-sharing that would reflect replicating
regulatory standards at the point of exit, so we hope the paper
distinguishes between interim and long-term arrangements. The
latter will be harder to work out with respect to whether we do
or don’t agree on maintaining data protection alignment with the
EU.
“The easiest way of ensuring this is to prioritise an adequacy
assessment for the interim period (not a complicated “unique
model”, as that is for the longer term), and the Government
should make clear whether this is its preferred option for
governing data flows on Brexit day or not, given the time
pressures of Article 50. For the longer term, a new treaty or
mechanism to manage this could work, but only if it is based on a
deep level of regulatory cooperation that would need to be put in
place to manage data flows.”
“It is crucial that businesses are not left relying on standard
contract clauses to deal with managing data flows after Brexit.
It is the responsibility of the UK and the EU to come to an
agreement on this, rather than transferring the onus of
compliance requirements onto companies.”
