Brexit and biobanking: GDPR perspectives

At the time we wrote this chapter, we undertook the almost impossible task of providing a legal analysis of an event (Brexit) that had not happened and might never have happened. This chapter nonetheless contributes to the edited collection in that it reports on the then legal position in the UK, and presents an analysis of two possible immediate post-Brexit legal futures, for data protection law as applicable to biobanking in the UK. These post-Brexit futures are the position if the draft Withdrawal Agreement is ratified and comes into force, and the position if it does not (a so-called ‘No Deal’ Brexit). The chapter concludes with some thoughts on possible longer term futures. The main message is the deep uncertainties surrounding Brexit and what it means in both legal form and in practice.