The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force on May 25, 2018, replacing the Data Protection Act 1998. The UK government has confirmed that the UK’s decision to leave the EU will not affect the commencement of GDPR.
GDPR is designed to strengthen and unify data protection for all individuals living in the European Union. There are lots of similarities between the Data Protection Act 1998 regulations and GDPR, but there are also be a range of new definitions, requirements of data controllers and processors, regulatory powers, and rights of data subjects.
An overview of GDPR can be found here.