As you know I sacrifice a lot of things for this blog; reading the tabloid newspapers defending President Trump is one of those delightful activities. The sycophantic text often raises blood pressure and increases the risk of stroke; to counter this I have to ample drink red-wine which, the Daily Mail assures me, prevents strokes. So that’s OK then?
So you probably missed the fact that the font of all Data Protection knowledge (the Sun Newspaper) ran a story that said sole traders (i.e. white, self-employed Mondeo man and woman who voted Brexit) would get million pound fines if they sent a marketing email to promote their business. This fine, the Sun asserts, has “been inflicted on EU by the EU” (if you get the drift of the message).
Well this nonsense story has an intriguing line. The “GDPR will form part of the Data Protection Bill announced in last month’s Queen’s Speech, full details of which will be published in September. Gosh, I did not know that.
So, I checked with DCMS, just in case the wholly reliable Sun had made a mistake. It hasn’t and DCMS confirmed that “we're aiming to introduce the Bill as soon as we can once the houses are back from Summer recess”. This is a reference to the short Parliamentary session before the start of the Conference season (Between 5 September and 14 September).
So look out for the Bill in that week; something to look forward to when you return.
As you also know, BCS has been waiting for this kind of announcement to start its new BCS GDPR syllabus for their new Foundation and Practitioner offerings (which eventually will be based on the new Data Protection Act).
Assuming the syllabi are available in September, Amberhawk expects that our BCS GDPR courses will be fully operational around Dec/January/Feb next year (as our courses have to be fully approved and accredited by BCS – a process that takes 6-8 weeks).
However, we are expecting to run the following mixture of GDPR courses to the relevant BCS syllabus (as soon as we can – as I say Jan/Feb next year I suspect).
- GDPR Foundation to replace the DP Foundation (although in practice I expect few changes to the Foundation syllabus)
- GDPR Practitioner to replace the DP Practitioner
- GDPR conversion course to take delegates from the DPA Foundation/Practitioner to GDPR Practitioner.
If you are interested in hearing details as soon as we have them, just send an email to us (e.g. via the “Contact Us” part of this website).
I am still running a GDPR day workshop course in Leeds (on 12 September) and Edinburgh on 6 October (details on http://www.amberhawk.com/bookevents3.asp).
Our Data Protection Foundation course in Edinburgh on October 3-5 is also running. (Details from http://www.amberhawk.com/DPFoundation.asp).
This Foundation course will be relevant to the GDPR as the core elements of the DPA and GDPR are almost the same (e.g. key definitions, principles, right of access, data sharing, PECR marketing). However, I do mention key differences between the two regimes. The course should appeal to those helping to deliver GDPR/DPA compliance.
P.S. This is the last blog until the Autumn as Hawktalk is flying off for its summer break on the Les Plages Du Soleil at Barnsley-sur-Mer and sampling La Biere d’Oakwell.
References
The Sun foray into a data protection story: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4122579/builders-cleaners-and-gardeners-could-face-huge-fines-just-for-sending-an-email-to-drum-up-business-thanks-to-draconian-eu-laws-on-data-protection/