The statement is issued in-line with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The regulation controls, amongst other things, transfer of personal data on individuals to countries outside the EU and EEA.

GDPR came into force in 2018 and so it applied in the UK until the end of the EU Exit Transition Period in December 2020.

From January 2021, the UK became a “third country”, although local laws on this subject remained unchanged and the UK remained aligned to the previous EU standard.

Transfer of data from the EU to the UK became unlawful, until the EU judged UK arrangements for data protection to be adequate.

This has now happened and this ruling should assist businesses that operate internationally (eg: multi-national manufacturing businesses).