UK and US issue a joint statement on deepening collaboration on data
On 8 December 2021, Gina M. Raimondo, US Commerce Secretary and Nadine Dorries, UK Secretary for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport announced a joint commitment to deepen the long-standing cross-border data partnership between the two countries.
In the statement, the UK, and US both acknowledge the potential value of the data ecosystem in addressing global challenges such as public safety, national security and law enforcement, and the importance of adequacy in underpinning this.
The challenge, recognised by the two Governments, will be developing a comprehensive data partnership agreement that remains interoperable and can continue to facilitate cross-border data flows, without threatening high standards of trust and data protection rights.
As outlined in the statement, incompatible data protection regimes risk closing off international data flows, and both countries affirm their commitment to engaging with international partners, industry, civil society, and consumer privacy rights groups to work through this tension.
A new approach to international data transfers
Data protection rules from many countries, including the UK, have extra territorial provisions meaning that any data sharing agreement with the US would need sufficient safeguarding and redress mechanisms to ensure that UK citizens' data, as well as the data of citizens the UK has data sharing agreements and adequacy decisions with remains protected to equivalent standards as in their home jurisdiction. A risk to data sharing deals are so called ‘onward transfers’ where personal data exchanged by two countries which have a data sharing deal is transferred on to a third country, which one of the two partners has no agreement with.
The UK is aiming to guard against this through its new approach to international data transfers, which includes a manual on assessing potential partners for data adequacy decisions, and efforts to create common and interoperable principles on data sharing such as via the recent G7 statement on the free flow of data with trust. Reassuring existing as well as new partners about how their citizens data will be handled, will be an important part of the UK’s attempts to increase digital trade.
techUK welcomes this joint announcement and encourages the UK Government to leverage its G7 leadership and ambitions under Mission 5 of the National Data Strategy, Championing the international flow of data to foster multilateral dialogue and shared approaches to adequacy and cross-border data flows. This will be essential in setting a sustainable foundation for future digital trade between the UK, EU and US as well as the wider global economy.
Partnerships such as these, offer the opportunity to develop sustainable models for international data flows that will work for businesses, facilitate innovation whilst maintaining a high global standard for data protection. UK Government should continue to regularly engage with industry to understand how approaches to adequacy can best serve businesses and encourage international partnerships.
The UK Government’s recent data reform consultation has been a welcome vehicle to engage with industry, and techUK is supportive of the Government’s intention to take a more risk and outcomes-based approach to adequacy and international data flows. We intend to continue our engagement with Government to better understand how this approach will be implemented in practice, and what it will mean for UK business. You can read our full response here.
US and UK to partner on prize challenges to advance Privacy-Enhancing Technologies
Nadine Dorries, UK Secretary for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport also announced during a speech for the Summit for Democracy, plans for UK-US collaboration on bilateral innovation prize challenges focussed on advancing privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs).
Development of PETs will offer more secure ways to share sensitive information whilst preserving data protection rights and early use cases of PETs demonstrate their potential in solving real-life challenges, such as tackling financial crime.
As part of a series of International Grand Challenges on Democracy-Affirming Technologies, the initiative which will take place over 2022, aims to bring innovators from the UK and US together to solve some of the technical gaps and barriers to PET adoption.
This is an initiative welcomed by techUK and its members, which we see as setting a positive blueprint for future bilateral and multilateral partnerships and laying strong foundations for UK-US collaboration in this technology area.
We look forward to understanding how this initiative will interact with and support the UK Government’s intention to boost the development and uptake of PETs under the policy framework for Mission 1 of the National Data Strategy, Unlocking the value of data across the economy.
Sue Daley OBE
Sue leads techUK's Technology and Innovation work. This includes work programmes on AI, Cloud, Data, Quantum, Semiconductors, Digital ID and Digital ethics as well as emerging and transformative technologies and innovation policy. In 2025, Sue was honoured with an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to the Technology Industry in the New Year Honours List. She has also been recognised as one of the most influential people in UK tech by Computer Weekly's UKtech50 Longlist and was inducted into the Computer Weekly Most Influential Women in UK Tech Hall of Fame.
