The European Commission has published its Draft Adequacy Decision that finds that UK should be found ‘adequate’.

This Decision will now be shared with the European Data Protection Board for a ‘non-binding opinion’, before being presented to EU member states for formal approval.

If adopted these decisions will allow for continued free flow of personal data from the EU into the UK.

During this process, UK businesses & public authorities will continue to be able to receive data from the EU under the adequacy bridge agreed in the 2020 Trade and Cooperation Agreement. This ‘bridging mechanism’ will remain in place until 30 June 2021 or until the adequacy decisions come into effect, whichever is sooner.

This is an important decision for any Company that transfers personal data from EU to UK. We know a number of a companies share HR and payroll functions with their counterparts in Ireland and this will allow that process to continue.

The Government’s Response to this Decision provides links to the EC Decision and Press Releases.