IDPC to host British, Irish and Islands Data Protection Authorities 2023 annual meeting

The forum, which brings together ten data protection authorities from two continents, will take place in Malta next June.

10^th March 2023

The British, Irish and Islands’ Data Protection Authorities (“BIIDPA”) is network that links the Privacy Commissioner for Bermuda, the Cayman Islands Ombudsman, the Office of the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection of the Republic of Cyprus, the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority, the Office of the Data Protection Authority of Guernsey, the Data Protection Commission of the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man Information Commissioner, the Jersey Office of the Information Commissioner, the Office of the Information and Data Protection Commissioner of Malta and the United Kingdom Information Commissioner’s Office. BIIDPA Commissioners gather annually to discuss matters of mutual concern in the course of this meeting, which tone is largely informal.

The organisation of the meeting is volunteered by one of its participants. In July 2022, the UK ICO hosted the BIIDPA physically in London in occasion of the launch of its 25-year strategic plan. The year before, it was the Privacy Commissioner for Bermuda to host an online event during which the members spoke about the oversight of financial services organisations, the protection of children’s personal information, complaints on processing of personal data by means of video surveillance devices and facial recognition, amongst other topics. Not long after the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, the Irish Data Protection Commission organised the BIIDPA meeting in virtual format. Therein, the participants had the opportunity to discuss data protection strategies and practices to be adopted during the pandemic.

The BIIDPA purposely brings together data protection authorities of countries whose separate data protection regimes have close affinities, and aims to ensure practical supervisory consistency amongst them. Given that some of the participants have competence to regulate legislation governing access to public information, a part of the BIIDPA yearly meeting is customarily dedicated to this area of regulatory oversight.

The IDPC is proud to host this year’s annual BIIDPA meeting in Malta in June. The event will be a valuable chance to discuss convergent issues, share best practices and develop common approaches and interpretations on key data protection and freedom of information matters.