Most attention has focused on the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") (Regulation (EU) 2017/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/E) but in practical terms the Data Protection Act 2018 is the legislation to which lawyers and business people in the UK are more likely to refer. That is because it provides machinery for the enforcement of the GDPR both before and after we leave the European Union and regulates the processing of personal data that falls outside the scope of the GDPR.
Structure of the Act
The statute consists of 215 sections arranged in 7 parts with 20 schedules. An overview of the Act is set out in s.1:
"OverviewMost of the Act is in force by virtue of reg 2 of The Data Protection Act 2018 (Commencement No. 1 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2018 (SI 2018 No. 625).
(1) This Act makes provision about the processing of personal data.
(2) Most processing of personal data is subject to the GDPR.
(3) Part 2 supplements the GDPR (see Chapter 2) and applies a broadly equivalent regime to certain types of processing to which the GDPR does not apply (see Chapter 3).
(4) Part 3 makes provision about the processing of personal data by competent authorities for law enforcement purposes and implements the Law Enforcement Directive.
(5) Part 4 makes provision about the processing of personal data by the intelligence services.
(6) Part 5 makes provision about the Information Commissioner.
(7) Part 6 makes provision about the enforcement of the data protection legislation.
(8) Part 7 makes supplementary provision, including provision about the application of this Act to the Crown and to Parliament."
Implementation
I discussed the mechanism by which the Act repealed the previous statute and made provision for the GDPR in The Data Protection Act 2018 - repealing the 1998 Act and applying the GDPR on 11 April 2018,
Further Reading
Date
| Author and Title |
Publication
|
11 June 2018
|
NIPC Data Protection
| |
23 May 2018
|
Elizabeth Denhan Beyond 2018 – data protection laws built to last
|
ICO Website
|
ICO Website
|
Contact
Jane Lambert
Jane Lambert
