On Monday, 11 September, the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology introduced secondary legislation to remove the situation whereby the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) describes the right to protection of personal data as a fundamental right.
The GDPR currently defines "fundamental rights and freedoms" as retained EU rights under section 4 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (EUWA). However, given the EUWA is to be repealed at the end of 2023, the government is using a Statutory Instrument (SI) to ensure that relevant rights and freedoms continue to be recognised. As such, the SI amends the definition to refer to an alternative source: the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which has been incorporated into UK domestic law under the Human Rights Act 1998. The UK government states that this will provide clarity for organisations subject to data protection legislation and establish a clear set of fundamental rights and freedoms to reference.
Read the explanatory memorandum.
Data protection specialist Jon Baines has written a blog article on the development.
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