EdLaw
Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018)
The UK's framework data protection statute, read alongside the UK GDPR: it supplements the UK GDPR for general processing, and separately regulates law-enforcement and intelligence-services processing. Enforced by the Information Commissioner.
The Act's own structure (from the consolidated contents):
| Part | Subject |
|---|---|
| 1 | Preliminary |
| 2 | General processing (supplements the UK GDPR) |
| 3 | Law enforcement processing |
| 4 | Intelligence services processing |
| 5 | The Information Commissioner |
| 6 | Enforcement |
| 7 | Supplementary and final provision |
Key schedules: Schedule 1 (special categories and criminal convictions conditions), Schedule 2 (exemptions from the UK GDPR), Schedule 3 (exemptions for health, social work, education and child abuse data — Part 4 is education data).
Applicability to EdTech
For EdTech the operative regime is Part 2 (general processing) plus the UK GDPR together: the Act supplies the public-interest lawful-basis detail, the child's-consent provision for information society services, the Schedule 1 conditions needed to process special-category data, and the Schedule 2/3 exemptions — including the education-data exemptions in Schedule 3 Part 4 that govern access to pupil records.
Contents
| Document | Covers |
|---|---|
| OVERVIEW.md | Sections 1–3 — overview, protection duty, key terms |
| GENERAL-PROCESSING.md | Sections 8–11, 14, 15 — public-interest lawfulness, child's consent (ISS), special categories, automated decision-making safeguards, exemptions gateway |
Scope note: the Act has 259 sections; this folder reproduces Part 1 and the EdTech-critical Part 2 provisions verbatim. Parts 3–7 and the Schedules are mapped above and can be added as fact documents when needed.
Related
- UK GDPR — this Act must be read alongside it; Part 2 supplements it for general processing
Sources
- legislation.gov.uk — Data Protection Act 2018, consolidated text
- ICO — UK GDPR and DPA 2018 guidance
Meta
Built and re-verified mechanically — see tools/legislation-gov-uk: build_dpa2018.py regenerates the fact documents from the current consolidation; build_dpa2018.py verify confirms every source text node appears verbatim. Do not hand-edit section text.