If you transfer personal data from the UK to countries without adequacy status (e.g. the USA), your organisation needs to be aware that from 21 March 2022 new mechanisms for secure transfers were introduced in the UK. 

These include the:

• International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA): this is a UK equivalent to the EU’s standard contractual clauses (SCCs).
• UK Addendum to the EU SCCs: this can be appended to EU SCCs reducing the need for organisations to use both EU SCCs and the UK IDTA.

For transfers from the UK, from:

• 21 March 2022, the new mechanisms can be used.
• 21 September 2022, the old EU SCCs cannot be used anymore in new contracts. 
• 21 March 2024, all contracts will need to incorporate the new mechanisms.

The changes are further explained in the BHBIA Ethics & Compliance Committee’s guide ‘International data transfer mechanisms under the UK GDPR’ available in the Privacy & Data Protection section of the website.