We maintain and develop the ICO's influence within the global information rights regulatory community to support global protection of UK residents' rights and facilitate UK trade where it involves international transfers of personal data. We do this by ensuring that ICO’s interests are represented in the most important international fora and that the right bilateral relationships are developed to support both the ICO’s regulatory work and the UK’s international data objectives. The team also provides technical advice to HM Government on global data transfer issues, including adequacy assessments.
The international regulatory cooperation directorate supports the work of the ICO and represents the ICO abroad. We promote the ICO’s views on key enforcement, policy and technology issues and achievements overseas.
We monitor what is happening globally and feed that back into the ICO subject matter experts and directorates to help inform ICO positions The department works as a ‘thought leader’ on the global stage were we engage with different groupings of data protection and freedom of information authorities to share experiences and knowledge on a wide range of issues and activities.
Members of the international directorate act as the ICO’s representatives at global information rights fora, such as the Global Privacy Assembly and International Conference of Information Commissioners, and within varied regional groupings. The latter include the Common Thread Network of Commonwealth DPAs, the British, Ireland and Islands (BIIDPA) grouping of Data Protection authorities and the Global Privacy Enforcement Network. The team also coordinates the ICO’s bilateral engagement with other Information and Data Protection/Privacy Commissioners, and with foreign governments and wider international stakeholders, where this supports out domestic regulatory activity or where we are developing approaches to tackle similar policy or technology issues.
The International Team supports the Government’s domestic and international policy work with regard to international data transfers and information rights. This includes working alongside DCMS policy colleagues representing the UK in the Council of Europe and the OECD, where we contribute to developing approaches in the Data Governance and Privacy Working Party. We also advise the Government as it develops its approach to international agreements which permit personal data to flow around the world. This includes a support and advice role on UK adequacy assessments and input on the UK’s new relationship with the EU (regulatory cooperation), the UK’s trade policy and international cooperation in law enforcement.