Reform UK has unveiled a package of business policies that would dismantle key parts of Britain’s current data-protection regime and limit the personal liability faced by non-executive directors, positioning deregulation as part of its pitch to technology companies, startups and small businesses.
The party wants to replace the UK’s version of the General Data Protection Regulation with a light-touch approach to data protection modeled on New Zealand’s privacy framework. Reform Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick argued that GDPR had “strangled” technology companies and smaller businesses through what he described as unnecessary regulation.
For UK founders, the bigger proposal is not simply less paperwork. Reform is effectively arguing that privacy compliance, director risk and startup-investment incentives are interconnected barriers to company formation and growth.
Reform Wants GDPR Replaced With New Zealand-Style Rules
Irish Independent shared that Jenrick said the UK should no longer follow privacy regulations inherited from the European Union nearly a decade after the Brexit referendum, describing the existing framework as a “web of unnecessary regulation” for small businesses and tech firms. Reform instead wants rules based on New Zealand’s more lenient privacy regime.
That could have material implications for software companies. GDPR currently shapes how businesses design consent flows, customer-data retention, deletion systems, analytics infrastructure and access controls. A lighter domestic framework could reduce some compliance costs, but companies selling into Europe would still have to consider EU data rules independently.
Irish Independent shared that Reform leader Nigel Farage said small businesses had been “suffocated” by taxes and EU-derived red tape, presenting the policy package as a broader attempt to support Britain’s roughly 6 million small businesses.
Non-Executive Directors Would Get a Liability Cap
Reform is also proposing limits on the personal financial exposure of people serving as non-executive directors at smaller companies.
The Financial Times reported that Reform wants to cap civil liability for non-executive directors of small companies at £50,000 or three times their average remuneration, whichever framework ultimately applies under the proposed policy.
For startups, this is potentially important. Experienced executives and investors often join boards partly to provide governance, industry contacts and strategic oversight, but personal liability can make those positions less attractive. Reform’s proposal attempts to reduce that risk and potentially widen the pool of people willing to serve on small-company boards.
Startup Investors Would Also Get Bigger Tax Incentives
The package extends into startup financing.
Reform plans to modify the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme so that parents and grandparents could invest up to £250,000 in a relative’s small business while receiving a 50% income-tax rebate and an exemption from capital-gains tax if the investment is held for three years.
The Financial Times describes the proposal as part of a wider business-friendly economic agenda aimed at small enterprises and startup investment. Reform has also proposed raising the VAT threshold, reversing higher employer national-insurance contributions and eliminating income tax on overtime.
Deregulation Comes With a Trade-Off
Opponents argue that reducing regulation could weaken protections rather than simply remove bureaucracy.
Labour said Reform’s plans would “scrap vital safeguards that protect people’s private data”, while Conservative shadow chancellor Mel Stride said there was little detail explaining how replacing GDPR would actually work.
For technology builders, that uncertainty is the larger story. Reform is proposing a different competitive model for Britain: lower compliance burdens, easier startup investment and reduced governance risk.
But software companies operating internationally cannot design data architecture around UK rules alone. Even if Britain ultimately adopts lighter regulation, businesses serving European customers may still need GDPR-grade privacy infrastructure.
That means Reform’s proposals could reduce domestic compliance costs—but they may also create a more fragmented regulatory stack that technology companies must engineer around.
