The Manx government’s update of data protection rules in the wake of European GDPR legislation has suffered a setback.

Tynwald failed to approve the implementing regulations of the new Data Protection Act, with the Legislative Council voting against.

The regulations will now return to next month’s Tynwald sitting for a combined vote.

New EU General Data Protection Regulation rules on controlling and processing personal data came into force on May 25.

Any organisation that carries out business with Europe must comply or face hefty fines.

The Manx government has been reviewing and revising the island’s own Data Protection law to ensure full compliance with GDPR.

But there was stinging criticism in Tynwald from LibVan Ramsey MHK Lawrie Hooper about the 180 page order that sets out the implementing regulations.

He told members: ’We can all agree this 180-page order is neither plain, simple nor to all capacities, intelligible.

’Given that this order is supposed to be addressing one of our most fundamental rights, that of privacy, how have we allowed it to be so obtuse, so difficult to follow and so unnecessarily complex and bureaucratic?’

Mr Hooper continued: ’What we have in front of us is a piece of law that fails at some of its most basic requirements.

’Will this law work? I believe it might just meet that test. But will it work well, will it work effectively, will it be cost effective, will it be easily enforceable? No, I don’t believe it will.’

And he added: ’So if you are happy with legislation that barely works, that will place an unrealistic financial burden on the public purse and on those responsible for the enforcement of these new rules, then by all means support the order.’

But he told members that if they believe as he does that the law should not be onerous, that it should be cost effective and that it should provide for effective enforcement, then they should listen to his concerns.

Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas accepted it was a complex piece of legislation. ’We have worked hard to balance the rights of individuals in the digital age against the burdens placed on businesses and other organisations,’ he said.

Mr Thomas said during a recent visit, senior representatives of the European Commission’s international data protection unit had been ’very encouraged’.

He said the order marked the ’next stage of our journey’, adding that he will bring forward further regulations next month focusing on additional exemptions, ’the need for which has been brought to our attention’.