June 27, 2016

To allay any confusion, the ICO said that The Data Protection Act 1998 “remains the law of the land irrespective of the referendum result”.

As for the upcoming EU reforms and the General Data Protection Regulation, the ICO makes it clear that when the UK is no longer part of the EU, “then upcoming EU reforms to data protection law would not directly apply to the UK”.  Further, if the UK wants to trade with the Single Market on equal terms “we would have to prove ‘adequacy’ – in other words UK data protection standards would have to be equivalent to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation framework starting in 2018”, the statement reads.

With so many businesses and services operating across borders, “international consistency around data protection laws and rights is crucial both to businesses and organisations and to consumers and citizens”, the ICO says.  Further, the ICO says that it will continue to work closely with regulators in other countries.

“Having clear laws with safeguards in place is more important than ever given the growing digital economy, and we will be speaking to government to present our view that reform of the UK law remains necessary”, the ICO says.  To read the ICO’s statement in full, click here.