Data flows you can trust

This work will help us to shape how data is used so that we can maximise its potential, drive growth and improve lives across the UK. This Call for Evidence seeks practical, experience-based insight into whether the UK’s data regime is enabling data flows you can trust. We want to understand: does the UK’s approach to international data transfers achieve this as effectively as it can do? Where should we preserve the current system, and what parts of it are most suitable for reform? 

How data is handled matters. It matters because data about you represents information that is often deeply personal, and how it is treated is important. For organisations, data is a critical operational and strategic asset. It underpins day-to-day business activity, enables firms to operate across borders, and supports innovation, investment, and growth. Trust in how data is handled is therefore essential to enabling organisations to use data confidently and responsibly. And taken across the UK, it matters because data represents a strategic national asset of significance to both our prosperity and security. The potential benefits are huge, with data flows now contributing more to economic growth globally than trade in goods.

We want to understand how we can most effectively manage international data transfers. Our commitment to high standards of data protection, and to maintaining trust in the UK’s data regime, remains fundamental. That trust depends not only on the existence of rules, but on whether those rules are meaningful in practice, and that they are understood, effective, enforceable, and targeted at the emerging risks that matter most. This Call for Evidence is intended to ensure we are hearing directly from those using the system in practice, so that it remains effective and fit for the future, including where new services powered by technologies like AI rely on data flowing securely across borders to deliver reliable, personalised experiences for people.