Remedy
Start free

Section 28: National security and defence: modifications to Articles 9 and 32 of the UK GDPR

Data Protection Act 2018 · 2018 c. 12View on legislation.gov.uk

Part 2: General processing — CHAPTER 3: Exemptions for manual unstructured processing and for national security and defence purposes

Article 9(1) of the UK GDPR (prohibition on processing of special categories of personal data) does not prohibit the processing of personal data to which the UK GDPR applies to the extent that the processing is carried out—

for the purpose of safeguarding national security or for defence purposes, and
with appropriate safeguards for the rights and freedoms of data subjects.

Article 32 of the UK GDPR (security of processing) does not apply to a controller or processor to the extent that the controller or the processor (as the case may be) is processing personal data to which the UK GDPR applies for—

the purpose of safeguarding national security, or
defence purposes.

Where Article 32 of the UK GDPR does not apply, the controller or the processor must implement security measures appropriate to the risks arising from the processing of the personal data.

For the purposes of subsection (3), where the processing of personal data is carried out wholly or partly by automated means, the controller or the processor must, following an evaluation of the risks, implement measures designed to—

prevent unauthorised processing or unauthorised interference with the systems used in connection with the processing,
ensure that it is possible to establish the precise details of any processing that takes place,
ensure that any systems used in connection with the processing function properly and may, in the case of interruption, be restored, and
ensure that stored personal data cannot be corrupted if a system used in connection with the processing malfunctions.

The functions conferred on the Commissioner in relation to the UK GDPR by Articles 57(1)(a), (d), (e), (h) and (u) and 58(1)(d) and (2)(a) to (d) of the UK GDPR (which are subject to safeguards set out in section 115) include functions in relation to subsection (3).

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.