Legal Sector Leads the Way in Prep for GDPR, Despite Brexit

The legal sector has been praised for leading the way on preparations for the EU General Data Protection Regulation – after a survey revealed other industries are mistakenly ditching reforms because of Brexit.

The regulation, which has been years in the pipeline, is designed to harmonise data protection regulation across Europe and provide citizens with more control over their personal data.

It has been ratified by the UK and is due to come into force in May 2018 – almost certainly before Britain completes its exit from Europe, despite the recent triggering of Article 50.

However, a survey of IT decision makers by information management experts Crown Records Management has revealed some shocking results.

It showed that:

• A quarter of firms have cancelled all preparation for the regulation.
• A further 4% have not even begun preparation.
• 44% think the regulation will not apply to UK business after Brexit.

Results in the legal sector, however, were very different. The results in this industry showed:

• Not a single respondent had cancelled preparations for the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) – in banking the figure was 33%
• Only 33% thought the regulation wouldn’t apply after Brexit – in banking the result was 55%.
• 44% had already appointed a data protection officer, one of the requirements of the EU GDPR.

John Culkin, Director of Information Management at Crown Records Management, believes the results are good news.

He said: “These results are encouraging for the legal sector because so many other sectors have failed to understand the impact of the EU GDPR and why it will affect them despite Brexit.

“Firstly, it is likely to be in place before any Brexit. Secondly, although an independent Britain would no longer be a signatory it will still apply to all businesses which handle the personal information of European citizens.

“When you consider how many EU citizens live in the UK it’s hard to imagine many businesses here being unaffected. So it is vitally important that the legal sector has understood the implications.”

UK officials and politicians were heavily involved in the drawing up of the new regulation and Culkin believes the general principles behind it are set in stone.

“The reality is we are likely to continue to see stringent data protection in an independent UK rather than a watered down version,” he said.

“Our survey revealed that at least half of companies across the board saw Brexit as an opportunity for Britain to position itself as the safest place to do business through even more robust legislation.

“In fact, this premise was also supported in the legal sector with 55% calling for more robust data protection in an independent UK.

“This means the best course is to prepare now and have a watertight information management system in place as soon as possible. This issue is not going away.”

The EU GDPR will bring in massive fines for data breaches – as high as 20million Euros or up to 4% of global turnover – as well as new rules to ensure privacy is designed in to data policies, plus new rights for citizens to ask for their personal data to be edited or deleted.

(Source: Crown Records Management)