Home Office announces that UK law enforcement has regained the ability to share information more easily with officers in Guernsey following the completion of government’s first adequacy process since Brexit
The government has announced that it has signed off on the UK’s first post-Brexit data-adequacy decision which will allow police forces across the country to more easily share information with counterparts in the Guernsey.
The decision means that officials from the Home Office and the Information Commissioner’s office have undertaken a “full assessment of the [Guernsey’s] law-enforcement data protection legislation” and concluded that it offers equivalent safeguards to those provided by UK laws. The decision applies across the Bailiwick of Guernsey – a self-governing dependency of the UK, which includes Guernsey itself, as well as the smaller Channel Islands of Alderney, Sark, Herm, Jethou, and Brecqhou.
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“This data adequacy decision will help Guernsey to prevent crime and bring perpetrators to justice,” said a statement from the Home Office. “It will also provide UK authorities greater certainty and confidence in the regulatory landscape of Guernsey.”
The government indicated that assessments are currently taking place of the law-enforcement data-protection regimes of the UK’s two other crown dependencies – Jersey and the Isle of Man.
Law-enforcement data requires greater protection than other forms of information; all three crown dependencies and the UK have been independently deemed adequate by the European Union as offering the same coverage as the general-purpose GDPR – meaning personal data be legally transferred between all applicable countries. The UK is the only nation which has achieved adequacy status for the transfer of law-enforcement data with police forces in EU nations.
