18 June 2021

CRE: GDPR could be the target of UK’s post-Brexit ‘red tape’ cutting

The report recommends removing “unnecessary regulatory burdens” and concentrating specific regulatory reforms to “unleash” growth in a range of high-growth sectors, as well as boosting productivity and stimulating innovation.

An independent report into post-Brexit UK regulation, commissioned by the country’s Prime Minister, has recommended replacing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and reforming insurance rules as part of a new proportionate risk-based and growth-orientated approach.

The independent Taskforce on Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform said Brexit offered a “one-off opportunity to set out a bold new UK regulatory framework based on a set of principles embedded in UK common law, which prioritises innovation, growth and inward investment”. The taskforce was led by former Conservative party leader and Brexit campaigner Iain Duncan Smith.

The report recommends removing “unnecessary regulatory burdens” and concentrating specific regulatory reforms to “unleash” growth in a range of high-growth sectors, as well as boosting productivity and stimulating innovation. The taskforce also proposed a new “proportionality principle” that would make regulation “proportionate to both the scale of the risk being mitigated and the capacity of the organisation being regulated”.

“It is not just the code-based approach that had an insidious effect on the UK’s regulation. The way the ‘Precautionary Principle’ has been applied by the EU has meant some innovations have been stifled due to an excessive caution that is often disproportionate to the associated risk,” the taskforce says.

“The UK needs to establish its own modern, agile and effective approach to regulation. The UK should adopt a new proportionality principle that reflects the risk and the desired outcome,” it adds.

The report makes a wide range of proposals to cut ‘red tape’ across a number of sectors, including technology, agriculture, energy, healthcare and transport. Proposals include enabling wider commercial use of drones, accelerating clinical trials, trialling net-zero technologies, creating a smart energy grid, simplifying the regulation of chemicals and product labelling.

The taskforce is, however, particularly critical of the GDPR, which it wants replaced by a new UK data protection law. The report says the GDPR “overwhelms people with consent requests and complexity”, while “unnecessarily restricting the use of data for worthwhile purposes”. “The GDPR is already out of date and needs to be revised for AI and growth sectors if we want to enable innovation in the UK,” it says.

The taskforce proposes a new UK data protection law that would give “stronger rights and powers” to consumers, place “proper responsibility” on companies using data, and free up data for innovation. The taskforce also recommends changes are made to permit automated decision-making for machine learning and to remove the human review of algorithmic decisions required by the GDPR.

The GDPR is a “tickbox exercise” with an “overemphasis on consent” that has led to people being bombarded with complex consent requests, the report says....

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