The UK government’s journey to reform data protection in the UK has reached another milestone with the recent release of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill(1). The proposed ­legislative change amending the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK GDPR reflects the UK government’s efforts to boost British business and use its post-Brexit freedoms to depart from European law.

An introduction to the Bill

The highly anticipated Data Protection and Digital Information Bill (the Bill), that was introduced into Parliament on 18 July 2022, directly follows on from last year’s government consultation(2) on reforming UK data privacy legislation such as the UK GDPR (titled Data: a new direction(3)). Whilst the 192-page Bill considers reforms on a wide variety of matters, including the rules on cookies, changes to the role of the Information Commissioner’s Office and the approach to international transfers of personal data, this article focuses on the Bill’s proposals relating to AI reform in the UK and what the UK regulatory landscape for AI may look like over the next few years.