Data Protection Compliance in the UK, Second Edition

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND EU REGULATIONS

The Data Protection Act 1998¹ (DPA) came into force on 1 March 2000. It applies throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is based on the EU Data Protection Directive of 1995² (DPD). Special rules cover the use of telecommunications data and the use of e-mail, telephone and fax for direct marketing. These are based on the EU Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive of 2002.³ In the UK, this was implemented by the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003⁴ (PECR).

The DPA, like other legislation, has to be interpreted in the light of the Human Rights Act 1998.⁵ This is particularly important for the DPA because the Human Rights Act includes a specific right relating ...