he House of Lords report of 13 October urges the government to avoid data localisation, and to push for the adequacy assessment to be concluded as soon as possible. The Lords also say that the government and the ICO should step up their efforts to inform business of the situation they are facing if the UK is not granted an adequacy decision.

The report, The future UK-EU relationship on professional and business services, states that the free flow of data between the UK and EU is vital to professional and business service providers. “Compared to goods or financial services, the needs of this industry have been overlooked in the ongoing UK-EU future relationship negotiations. A free trade agreement on services is no silver bullet, but there are a number of areas that both sides need to get right to limit potential barriers to trade,” the Lords say.