The UK reform of data protection: key changes and their ethical, social and legal implications.

In September 2021, the UK government published a set of proposed reforms to its data protection regime for public consultation, later in June 2022 it released the response to the consultation, acknowledging the reforms it intends to adopt. The reforms are part of a broader national strategy, which aims to incentivize data-driven innovation and make the UK an international 'data hub'. In this article, we review the reforms that represent the most controversial points of divergence from the GDPR and are worth watching to evaluate their effects on the overall data protection framework once implemented.