Book review: UK GDPR Handbook

Book review:

UK GDPR Handbook

Edited by Ibrahim Hasan (Director of Act Now Training Ltd). Published April 2021.

By Jamie Burton

Now that the UK has exited the EU, the UK’s primary data protection legislation is a revision of the GDPR, known as the ‘UK GDPR’, working in conjunction with an amended version of the existing Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018). As any data protection professional knows, navigating this legislation isn’t always an easy task – I can’t be the only one who ends up with multiple browser tabs, flicking between a variety of reference sources, including the EU GDPR and its recitals, the DPA 2018, and the Keeling Schedule (which shows the amendments to UK law).

This new handbook from Act Now Publishing, and edited by Act Now’s Director and Founder Ibrahim Hasan, includes the text of the UK GDPR and relevant sections of the amended DPA 2018, set out in a clear and easy to read format. It also cross references the EU GDPR recitals (which also now form part of the UK GDPR), which makes for a much easier read. It’s easy to identify the various amendments, insertions and deletions from the EU GDPR by the colour coding used throughout.

Handily, links to guidance from the ICO, Article 29 Working Party and the European Data Protection Board are included throughout.

However my favourite features are the tabs, which mean readers can quickly jump to the relevant section. I’ve been road-testing the handbook for weeks now, and I’ve consulted it most days – and it has assisted me in working through those tricky data protection conundrums more efficiently than relying on multiple Internet bookmarks.

One thing the book doesn’t include is any additional guidance or interpretation of the legislation – meaning it’s ‘just the facts’, which to my mind is a good thing – there are plenty of other publications which work through the law and advise on implementation and other practical matters.

So in a nutshell – I highly recommend this useful handbook to fellow data protection and information governance professionals, who just want the legal text – structured in a logical, easy to navigate way.

To purchase the book, visit <www. actnow.org.uk>.

The Author

Jamie has 20 years’ experience of working in data protection and records management, in a variety of sectors, including local and central government, social housing, oil & gas, emergency services and financial services. He is former Editor of the IRMS Bulletin, and is currently Data Protection Consultant for Handelsbanken in the UK, supporting their UK banking operations in complying with data protection requirements.