Daniel Zeichner, MP for Cambridge, has condemned the Government’s No-Deal Brexit advice on data protection, released yesterday, as “pathetic“ and “setting a new low for ineptitude“.

The advice, which will be important for the tech companies and video games developers in Cambridge, comes to fewer than 1000 words, and suggests that if a data adequacy decision is not reached, which would allow the UK and the EU to continue to maintain free flows of data, companies should use “standard contractual clauses“. The advice confirms that the EU will not consider an adequacy decision while the UK is in the EU, leaving companies facing a cliff-edge – standard contractual clauses are expensive, complicated, and generally only suitable for large organisations.

Mr Zeichner comments “The Government have issued our tech sectors with advice that essentially boils down to “sort it out yourselves“ – this is really irresponsible, and no way to support industries threatened by unpredictable and chaotic politics. After two years, despite claiming to be pro-technology, the Conservatives are still nowhere when it comes to data. This could really threaten our excellent video games developers, which rely on data flows across Europe and the world.“