Clearview National December 2016 - Issue 181 | Page 89

BUSINESSNEWS

WILL DATA PROTECTION CHANGES AFFECT YOU?
If you hold data on individuals, you will be affected when the Data Protection Act
(DPA) is replaced by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018.
»»THIS CHANGE WILL BRING
significant implications to any businesses
processing personal data, particularly those with
e-commerce, marketing, retail and wholesale
business operations.
The EU GDPR directive, which comes into
force on the 25th May 2018, aims to protect
privacy and personal data with clear penalties for
those who fail to comply with the legislation.
WHAT IS ‘PERSONAL DATA’?
This act covers all data and meta-data
held about employees, prospects, customers,
suppliers or anyone else, where they are referred
to as an individual, as opposed to a company.
For example, this does not apply to a company
recorded as ‘Some Org Ltd’, but would apply
to ‘Joe Bloggs, Managing Director at Some Org
Ltd’. Therefore, any company that stores names
and addresses is likely to be required to comply
with this regulation.

POST-BREXIT - DOES THIS
STILL MATTER TO ME?
When the directive comes into force in 20
months, the UK will still be governed by EU
regulations. At a point when the UK leaves
the EU, the GDPR directive will be used by
the UK as a base for writing a replacement
data protection directive. What’s more, if
UK organisations intend to trade with EU
organisations, they will need to adhere to the
GDPR, so this matters to most businesses
regardless of Brexit.
HOW DOES GDPR DIFFER
FROM THE CURRENT DATA
PROTECTION ACT?
Overall, the scope of GDPR is greater than the
DPA, and it is easier to define the point when
breach occurs. More responsibility is placed on
the holder and processor of data and full control
is firmly with the owner of the data.

THE KEY CHANGES INCLUDE:
• When data is collected, the purpose of
this must be made clear
• A company must delete data if no longer
used for the purpose it was collected
• The subject has the right to be erased on
request
• Firms handling a large amount of data,
or sensitive data, must appoint a data
protection officer (DPO)
• All businesses in the EU must be
complaint, as must companies trading
with organisations within the EU
Surprisingly, 44% of IT professionals are
uninformed of these new rules according to
Computer Weekly and in the experience of
OpusVL, very few companies that the software
supplier has talked with has even heard of the
impending GDPR.
Source: OpusVL

DEMAND FOR BUILDING WORK BUCKS BREXIT
»»CONSUMER DEMAND FOR
building work remained resilient in the three
months following the vote for Brexit, new
figures from the Federation of Master Builders
(FMB) have revealed.
Commenting on the results of the first
UK-wide survey of the SME construction
sector post-referendum, Brian Berry, Chief
Executive of the FMB, said: “Ongoing
workloads for construction SMEs remained
remarkably resilient in the months following
the referendum vote, suggesting that consumer
demand, which accounts for the bulk of SME
work, has held up far better than anticipated.
“Some of the other key indicators of SME
activity, such as employment levels, anticipated
workloads and new work enquiries, are
all positive, albeit showing slowed growth
compared to the previous quarter. If we all
agree that construction is a ‘weather vane’
industry, and demand for home improvement
and new build homes an important gauge of
consumer confidence, then our results chime
with the cautious positivity demonstrated across
construction and the wider housing market.”

Berry continued: “That being said,
construction bosses will be taking nothing for
granted. Growth has softened compared to the
buoyant first half of the year and some parts of
the UK have gone into decline. In particular,
London is flat-lining, which is concerning

Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the
Federation of Master Builders

given that it is typically one of the strongest
markets for construction SMEs. Our feeling is
that the construction skills shortage, which we
know is particularly pronounced in London
and the south east, is starting to bite.”
Berry concluded: “Our latest figures show
that nearly two-thirds of SMEs are struggling
to hire bricklayers and 55% are having a hard
time sourcing carpenters and joiners. This
highlights a different potential consequence
of Brexit, the possibility that we will have a
less flexible workforce. 12% of construction
workers working in the UK are of non-UK
origin, forming a vital part of a labour force
that is already stretched. Given that the skills
gap is only expected to grow over the next
decade, it’s vital that talented tradespeople
continue to come to the UK. For this reason,
we welcome the Government’s U-turn on
requiring companies to publish data on the
percentage of foreign workers they employ.
Such a move would send completely the
wrong message to foreign workers currently
living and working in the UK and those who
might consider coming here.”

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