In the latest batch of technical notices, the UK government has issued a warning to companies to start drafting standard contractual clauses for data transfers in case it doesn't manage to negotiate exit terms with the European Union before March 2019.

The government confirmed in the notice on data protection, that it would green light the transfer of UK data to other member states. However, guarantees could not be made for the reverse as Eurocrats have made it clear they won't rubberstamp the standards of protection applied by the UK (adequacy decision) until the UK is out of the bloc.

This leaves a period of time between the official exit date in March 2019 and the adequacy decision when data will not be able to flow into the UK and will be a major blow for companies doing business in Europe.