Nov 12016

UK Government Confirms GDPR Will Apply

William RM Long and Francesca Blythe
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The UK’s Secretary of State confirmed on October 31, 2016 that the UK will be implementing the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as the UK will still be a member of the EU when the GDPR comes into effect on 25 May 2018.

The UK’s Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham showed her support for this by issuing a statement describing the confirmed implementation as “good news.” Commissioner Denham further advised that the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is committed to assisting businesses to prepare to meet these new requirements and that a revised timeline setting out which areas of GDPR guidance the ICO will be prioritizing will be published in November. In closing, Commissioner Denham stressed that although, “there may still be questions about how the GDPR would work on the UK leaving the EU […] this should not distract from the important task of compliance with GDPR by 2018.”

William RM Long

London

wlong@sidley.com

Francesca Blythe

London

fblythe@sidley.com

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