The Data Protection Bill currently before Parliament substantially resurrects the controversial clause 152 of the Coroners and Justice Bill 2009. Careful scrutiny of this provision is needed and it must not be lost in the legislative morass as the UK grapples with data protection reform.

On 13^th September 2017, the Data Protection Bill received its First Reading in the House of Lords. This initiates the process of exercising areas of Member State discretion in the implementation of the General Data Protection Directive 2016/679 (GDPR), which comes into force on 24 May 2018. The Bill also implements the Law Enforcement Directive 2016/680, and makes provision for data processing by the security services, as well a data processing that falls outside the scope of the GDPR in other areas. Moreover, it prepares the ground for maintaining equivalence with the EU after Brexit, to ensure the free flow of information is not…