Your support helps us to tell the story

Support Now

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

The Government has been urged by a House of Lords committee to begin early talks with the European Commission on securing a new data adequacy agreement to ensure the economy is not hit by extra costs and red tape.

The Lords European Affairs Committee has written to Technology Secretary Peter Kyle to encourage him to begin talks on renewing the data agreement, which is due to expire in June 2025.

The UK and European Commission made a data adequacy agreement in 2021, where the EU recognised the UK’s data protection regulations as being equal to the EU’s own laws on the issue, therefore allowing data to flow seamlessly between the two.

The loss of data adequacy would create new barriers and run completely counter to the Government’s ambitions to grow the economy and reset relations with the EU

Lord Ricketts, Lords European Affairs Committee

The Lords committee has written to the Technology Secretary after concluding a seven-month inquiry, where it said experts warned that losing data adequacy status would not only increase friction for businesses and other organisations, but also produce significant extra costs and higher prices for consumers.

Lord Ricketts, chairman of the European Affairs Committee, said: “The UK faces a potential cliff-edge in June 2025 unless agreement is reached with the EU on the continued free flow of data.

“The safe and effective exchange of data underpins our trade and economic links with the EU and co-operation between our law enforcement bodies.

“The loss of data adequacy would create new barriers and run completely counter to the Government’s ambitions to grow the economy and reset relations with the EU.

“We recommend that reaching timely agreement on data adequacy should be integral to the reset, and the Government’s top data protection priority.”

The committee said witnesses during its inquiry suggested that failing to secure continued adequacy status could impose additional compliance costs on UK businesses of around £1 billion.

Lord Ricketts added that the process could also give the Government the chance to look at the UK’s own data laws.

“The UK’s current GDPR regime is far from perfect. But the consequences of not reaching agreement with the EU are extremely harmful,” he said.

“There is clearly scope to reform and improve GDPR as part of the Government’s new Digital Information and Smart Data Bill.

“But this must not jeopardise the UK’s adequacy status.”

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.