15 November 2016
The first challenges to the EU-US Privacy Shield
Further to our last blog post, two separate challenges have been launched against the EU-US Privacy Shield. “Digital Rights Ireland” and “La Quadrature du Net” have separately begun proceedings to annul the European Commission’s approval of the adequacy decision of the Privacy Shield framework.
27 October 2016
Data Protection Regulation blog series
Over the next few months, lawyers from Kingsley Napley will be blogging about how data protection law will change in their respective practice areas following the coming into effect in the UK of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) in May 2018.
As will be explained over the coming months, although the UK has voted to leave the EU individuals and businesses in the UK still need to have regard to the provisions of the GDPR and how it will change data protection law.
This first blog post will outline (in brief) the history of the GDPR.
26 October 2016
Coming clean on data security breaches
There is currently no legal obligation under the Data Protection Act 1998 for data controllers to report to the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) any breaches of data security that have led to losses of personal data – although the ICO strongly encourages controllers to bring “serious breaches” to their attention.
18 October 2016
Public law challenges and the Great Repeal Bill
The Prime Minister, Theresa May MP, and the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, David Davis MP, have both recently announced that the next Queen’s Speech will include a “Great Repeal Bill” (the “Bill”). The primary purpose of the Bill will be to provide for the repeal of the European Communities Act 1972, the Act through which European Union (“EU”) law is given supremacy in the UK. The Bill is therefore meant to give effect to the outcome of the June 2016 referendum result. As explained by Mr Davis to the Commons on 10 October 2016, the Bill will “end the authority of [EU] law” and “return sovereignty to the institutions of this United Kingdom”.
4 October 2016
The availability of judicial review against bodies exercising “public functions”
In an era where the state provides public services through the private and voluntary sectors, this matter has become increasingly important for the individual in seeking to vindicate his or her rights against the exercise of public power.