31 March 2023
UK data protection reform: Some much needed clarity
After many months waiting for further clarity, Emily Carter outlines what we now know about the direction of data protection reform in the UK following publication of the Data Protection and Digital Information (no. 2) Bill.
After the Government’s consultation in September 2021 and publication of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill in July 2022, the data reform process was paused last Autumn following the country’s change in prime minister to enable ministers to consider the legislation further. Since this time, with Michele Donelan appointed as the responsible secretary of state, there have been mixed messages with respect to how significant the further amendment to the draft bill would be. In her speech at the Conservative party conference in October, Donelan stated that the GDPR would be ‘replaced’ with a business and consumer friend data protection system, raising the prospect of an entirely new approach to data protection.
15 March 2023
ICO regulatory update: The only constant is change Spring 2023
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) regulates every organisation which deals with personal data and official data in the UK (and sometimes overseas). Its remit extends across the public and private sector, including multinationals, SMEs, public authorities and charities.
2 February 2023
‘Made in China’ as Possible Supply Chain Money Laundering
It is estimated that 30% of the world’s production of cotton originates in China. Of that cotton 85% originates in Xinjiang, which is the centre of the Uyghur atrocities. Recently before the High Court, the World Uyghur Congress (“the WUC”) argued that UK authorities were under a duty to block and/or launch money laundering investigations into the many imports of Xinjiang cotton brought into the UK - many by household names in the clothing industry – because of the high likelihood of prison and forced labour forming the start of the supply chain
26 January 2023
Case note – the appropriate venue for bringing a judicial review claim
CPR PD 54C - Administrative Court (Venue) provides that, save in relation to a small number of excepted claims, judicial review claims “should be commenced at the Administrative Court office for the region with which the claim is most closely connected” and that “the proceedings may either on the application of a party or by the Court acting at its own initiative, be transferred from the Administrative Court Office at which the Claim Form was issued to another Office. Such transfer is a judicial act” (paragraphs 2.1 and 2.3).
20 January 2023
Gender recognition and the risk of encouraging a constitutional crisis
This week it was announced that the UK Government has blocked the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill (“the Bill”) from receiving Royal Assent by invoking its powers under section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998. As well as causing disappointment and heart ache for trans people and allies who had welcomed the Bill, some say it also risks encouraging a constitutional crisis. But why is the bill so controversial and what is section 35?
