You know how it took you years to get your head around what the Data Protection Act 1998 meant? Well, the new general Data Protection Regulation took one step closer towards ripping up Directive 95/46/EC (and therefore the DPA) today. The Commission’s proposals for the new Regulation have now been signed off by the Justice Ministers (see press release here). The Commission informs us that the first meeting in the trilogue between the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU will take place on 24 June, and the aim is to have a text agreed before 2015 is out. The trilogue is where all the nitty gritty stuff has still to be hammered out, and plenty of changes are likely through that process, but at least we have a little more of an idea now of the timescale.

Christopher Knight