DIRECTIVE (EU) 2016/680 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by competent authorities for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Council Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA
The Police Data Protection Directive (also called Law Enforcement Directive – LED) applies to personal data processing carried out by competent authorities for the purpose of prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties. It ensures that police forces can efficiently do their work using technological means while preserving the fundamental rights of citizens. The Directive is designed to be consistent with the General Data Protection Regulation.
This Directive was adopted together with the GDPR on 27 April 2016, and published in the EU Official Journal on 4 May 2016. It entered into force on 5 May 2016.
In the UK, the PDPD was implemented within Part 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018. Whilst the PDPD only applies in relation to cross-border processing of personal data, Part 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018 also applies to the domestic processing for purposes of law enforcement.