Mr. Cathal Ryan:

I will take up from what my colleague, Mr. Sunderland, finished. Effectively, the Bill involves the creation of a framework in which to carry out the appropriate assessments under data protection legislation leading to a legal, lawful data sharing arrangement. While the Bill will set out various steps to be taken in a privacy rights impact assessment or a screening assessment to meet transparency requirements by publishing a memorandum of understanding or agreements, we also believe that while it allows for that framework, a statutory instrument should be created to underpin the process. For example, if a privacy rights impact assessment is carried out and shows that the risk cannot be mitigated or that the data protection rights of an individual cannot be ceded in the light of the objectives of a Government body, it cannot go any further, irrespective of the legal basis. That is because one has not shown that the justification has been necessarily proportionate. The Bill creates a framework in which to explore these issues as regards design, analysis and implementation of a data sharing arrangement. The statutory instrument will provide the legal certainty for data managers in being able to act on it in the future.