Another week, another Upper Tribunal consultation. This time, the Tribunal Procedure Committee is inviting responses – by 16 August 2021 – on proposals to amend the Upper Tribunal Rules to enable judges to certify applications for permission to appeal as ‘totally without merit’, and thus removing the right to renew that application at an oral hearing. The changes would effectively align the UT with the position under the CPR, in relation to both applications for permission to claim judicial review and applications for permission to appeal. Given that it is just – just – possible that readers of this blog working in information rights may have come across litigants who make totally without merit applications, the consultation may be of interest. It is to be found here.

Christopher Knight

Last week, the Prime Ministerial Taskforce on Innovation, Growth, and Regulatory Reform (known more catchily as TIGRR) published a 130-page report setting out a “new regulatory framework” for the UK. It offers a possible glimpse of the future of data regulation. Continue reading →

11KBW’s Annual Information Law Conference begins tomorrow with the first of nine webinars running from 16 June to 5 July. Tomorrow’s offering, chaired by 11KBW’s Christopher Knight, is ‘Data Privacy in the public law arena’. The conference has already attracted significant numbers, ranging from 540 to 700 registrants per webinar. If you have not yet signed up but wish to do so, please email RSVP@11kbw.com.

Data privacy class actions are currently big business in the UK. For those of you who are interested in how the UK position compares with the position within the EU, you might want to attend this British Institute of International and Comparative Law webinar on 8 June at 5pm: Damages Claims for Mass Data Breaches: UK and European Perspectives (biicl.org) . Note that 11KBW’s information law conference later this month includes a webinar comparing the UK and US positions.

Anya Proops QC

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has handed down judgment (over 200 pages of it) in relation to the UK’s bulk interception of communications regime as it stood under section 8(4) of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 in Big Brother Watch & others v UK (App. No.s 58170/13, 62322/14 and 24969/15), and made important findings that the regime was not in accordance with law and thus breached Article 8 ECHR. Continue reading →

The Court of Appeal’s judgment in R (Open Rights Group and the3million) v Secretary of State for the Home Department and Others [2021] EWCA Civ 800, handed down this morning, concludes that the ‘immigration exemption’ in Schedule 2 to the DPA 2018 is not compliant with the GDPR. That is a very significant conclusion in its own right, from the perspectives of both immigration and data protection law. But the Court’s analysis also applies to a more general question: what does a valid (i.e. GDPR-compliant) exemption from data protection rights and duties look like? Continue reading →