Harper James advises start-ups, scale-ups and established businesses on UK GDPR international transfers under the laws of England and Wales. A Transfer Risk Assessment (TRA) gives the organisation a documented basis for deciding whether personal data can be sent to a country outside the UK, particularly where the destination lacks an adequacy decision.
A restricted transfer occurs when UK personal data is made available to an organisation outside the UK, such as through a cloud hosting provider, overseas group company, payroll platform or customer support team. Start by checking whether the destination benefits from UK adequacy regulations. If it does not, use an approved safeguard, usually the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA), the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or an exception that genuinely applies. The TRA then examines whether the safeguard works in practice.
The ICO’s international transfer guidance and its TRA tool remain useful starting points, while adequacy decisions, regulatory guidance and supplier arrangements continue to develop. Explore further practical resources when reviewing the latest position. A TRA should be proportionate, evidence-based and specific to the transfer, rather than a generic statement that the supplier is reputable.
Record the data categories, individuals affected, purpose, importer, onward transfers, storage locations, access arrangements and retention period. Then assess the law and practice in the destination country, including government access powers, surveillance rules, judicial remedies and the importer’s ability to challenge or limit disclosure requests. Compare those risks with the protections in the IDTA or Addendum, encryption, access controls, pseudonymisation, confidentiality commitments and supplier audit rights.
The outcome should state whether the transfer proceeds, what supplementary measures apply and who approved the decision. If residual risk remains unacceptable, change the processing design: keep the data in the UK, remove unnecessary fields, select a different supplier or stop the transfer. Revisit the TRA when the data, supplier, destination, contract or relevant law changes, and set a review date.
Businesses often rely on a supplier’s ISO certification or privacy policy without assessing government access, overlook onward transfers by sub-processors, or sign an IDTA without completing the supporting analysis. A sound process links the TRA to the data map, records the supplier’s answers and keeps the contract, technical controls and privacy notice consistent. Harper James can review the transfer structure, IDTA or Addendum, supplier terms and wider UK GDPR governance as part of a focused data protection project or ongoing legal support.