The government have released plans to publish its own data protection bill which will bring EU data protection legislation into the UK law.
The legislation will give greater rights to individuals. There is a new “right to be forgotten” and people can ask companies to erase any personal data held on them.
The penalties are also heavier with fines of 4% of turnover or up to 17m.
There will be an obligation to provide information on employees and job applicants about how their personal data is processed.
There will no longer be a charge for individuals to pay when requesting access to their data and companies must respond within one month of a request.
More information will be published over the coming months.