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The final version of the draft Data Protection Bill has been released by the Legal Draftsman’s Department.
Originally, the Department released the latest revised version in mid-January 2021 and this version was reviewed again by the Attorney General’s (AG) Department and their observations were released on 16 February, ICTA sources said.
Several changes have been made to the substantive provisions of the original Draft Bill, including re-arrangement of key provisions, based on the feedback of a number of stakeholders, including the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and Observations of the AG and Ministry of Justice.
“After final approval of this version and translation, this will be submitted to Cabinet of Ministers and published as a Bill. At that point, further amendments are possible,” ICTA sources added.
Some of the key features of the revised Bill are Accountability mechanisms for processing of personal data, which can be implemented by Government Departments, Banks, Telco's, Companies etc. as self-regulatory mechanisms (referred to as ‘Data Protection Management Program’); Right of appeal by citizens to the Data Protection Authority against the decisions made by entities who refuse their requests under the Law; Requirement for ‘Data Protection Impact Assessments’ (DPIA) by those entities doing high risk processing; Defines criteria for cloud hosting of data under the provisions governing cross-border data flows and powers for the Data Protection Authority to give directives to Government and private sector entities processing personal data and impose penalties in the event of non-compliance. There is a Right of Appeal from these decisions to the Court of Appeal as well.
The Data Protection Draft Legislation was presented to the Cabinet of Ministers on 18 December 2019. This Draft was prepared after several rounds of public/stakeholder consultations.
Thereafter, this Bill was further reviewed and discussed with stakeholders, including at a workshop organised by the Junior Bar Committee of Bar Association of Sri Lanka, attended by several Justices of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal (February 2020) and the Legislative Committee of Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (March 2020).
The original Draft Bill was also reviewed by the AG for compliance with Article 77 of the Constitution and the preliminary observations of the AG were received by the Drafting Committee in July 2020.
Thereafter, the Drafting Committee met several times and prepared its response to the AG’s Observations. The Drafting Committee response to the AG’s Observations was also reviewed by the Independent Review Panel, chaired by Justice K.T. Chitrasiri and the corresponding response was sent to the AG and Legal Draftsman on 22 October 2020.
Thereafter, several consultations were held between the Legal Draftsman’s Department team and the Drafting Committee through November and December 2020. Despite the impediments caused by the pandemic, consultations were continued online.
