The UK is adequate. Doesn’t sound great does it but it is really good news for continuing to make transfers to and from the EU/EEA.
You may remember me telling you at the beginning of the year that there was a 6-month period where transfers to the EU could continue until the UK achieved an adequacy status from the EU. The adequacy status was approved on the 28th June (talking about taking it to the wire!).
This agreement means that personal information can continue to be transferred from the EU to the UK and vice versa without any additional controls being in place. There are some caveats though, unusually this agreement will be reviewed in 4 years’ time. The EU wants to ensure that the UK, when implementing any national data protection legislation, still maintains the
standard of GDPR. Given the level of trade and transfer of personal information with the EU, it’s in the UK’s interests to ensure that they maintain the adequacy approval.
In working practice, this means that any information you have in the EU either in the cloud or shared with other organisations in the EU can continue as now. It also means that when looking for cloud support or other services, keeping the information with the EU will be easier than moving it elsewhere from a contractual point of view.
I hope that helps but if you have any questions, we are here to help.