Edit a legal basis

Update wording, references and applicability of an existing legal basis.

Editing a Legal Basis Record

The legal basis library is the foundation of your entire compliance record-keeping in DPMS. Every processing activity in your Records of Processing Activities (ROPA) must cite a legal justification — and those justifications live here, as named legal basis records. When something changes — a regulation reference was entered incorrectly, a new law has come into force, or a description needs to be more informative — you come to this screen to update the record in place. Because every ROPA entry that references a legal basis pulls its data from the central record by ID, a correction here instantly flows through to the entire system.

How to open it

Navigate to the ROPA section in the left-hand sidebar. From the legal basis list or a legal basis detail view, click the edit (pencil) icon on the General section of any legal basis record. You can also reach this screen directly from the Compliance Settings → Tags detail view when the Legal Basis tab is active there, or from a link within the Assessment Review Portal during a data-mapping review.

You need write access to legal basis records to see the edit option. If you only have read access, the edit icon will not appear on the detail view.

Screenshot

What you see

The edit screen opens inside the standard DPMS creation/editing shell. Across the top you will see a back arrow on the left, followed by the page title "Edit general". There is no separate toolbar with buttons — saving is handled by a Save action built into the shell's header area.

The main content area shows a focused, narrow form panel — deliberately constrained in width so the fields are easy to read and fill in. Because a legal basis record has only one tab (General), there is no tab navigation visible; the form appears as a clean single panel.

Inside the form you will find three fields stacked from top to bottom: Name, Description, and Regulations. The Name field receives the cursor automatically when the screen loads, so you can start typing immediately without clicking.

Working with this screen

Correcting a regulation reference

If you notice that a legal basis has been linked to the wrong regulation — or needs a new one added — this is where you fix it.

Open the legal basis detail view, then click the edit icon on the General section to land on this screen. The Regulations dropdown will already show the currently saved regulations as removable chips.
To remove an incorrect regulation, click the × on its chip inside the dropdown.
To add the correct regulation, click the Regulations dropdown to open it and select the appropriate entry from the list. You can select multiple regulations if this legal basis applies under several frameworks — GDPR and a national data protection act, for example.
When you are happy with the selection, click Save in the header area of the page.

A success notification will confirm the update. The screen stays open after saving — this is expected behaviour (see Tips below). Click the back arrow to return to the detail view and verify the change is reflected.

Adding or improving a description

Preparing for an audit, or simply making records easier for non-legal colleagues to understand? The Description field is where you add plain-language context about what a legal basis means and when it applies.

Click into the Description text area. It expands to accommodate longer text, so feel free to write a thorough explanation.
Type your description — for example: "This legal basis applies where processing is necessary to comply with a statutory obligation under [Law Name]. It covers the mandatory retention of employee records for the period required by national employment law."
If your organisation processes data across multiple countries and has automatic translation configured in DPMS, you can activate the auto-translate option within the Description field. When this is enabled, the backend will generate translations of your description into all the additional languages your organisation has configured. This makes the record accessible to colleagues in different regional offices without manual translation work.
Click Save. The description is stored against the record and will appear to anyone viewing the legal basis detail page.

Updating the name after a regulatory change

When a law is formally renamed — for instance, after a national legislature passes an updated data protection act with a new official title — you should update the legal basis name to match.

Open the edit screen for the relevant legal basis. The Name field will be pre-filled with the current name and the cursor will land there automatically.
Clear the existing name and type the updated official name.
If the regulatory change also introduced a new regulation into your system's applicable laws list, open the Regulations dropdown and add it.
Click Save.

Because ROPA entries and other linked objects reference this legal basis by its database ID rather than by copying the name at link time, every place in DPMS that displays this legal basis will immediately show the updated name — no further action is needed.

Editing a legal basis from within an assessment review

If you are working in the Assessment Review Portal and spot a legal basis that needs correcting, you can edit it inline without losing your place in the assessment workflow.

Click the edit link for the legal basis from within the portal's data-mapping section. This opens the Edit Legal Basis screen, but DPMS quietly records that you came from the portal.
Make your changes — update the Name, Description, or Regulations as needed.
Click Save. Instead of sending you to the legal basis detail page, DPMS returns you directly to the Assessment Review Portal, exactly where you left off.

Field reference

Name — The display name of this legal basis. This is what colleagues will see in ROPA entries and elsewhere in DPMS. Enter the official name of the legal provision, regulation, or article this basis corresponds to. This field is required in practice — a legal basis without a name cannot be meaningfully linked to processing activities. The cursor lands here automatically when the screen opens.
Description — A free-text explanation of this legal basis. Use it to summarise what the law or article says, describe which processing scenarios it covers, or note any organisation-specific caveats. This field includes an automatic translation feature: when activated, DPMS sends the description to the configured translation service and stores translated versions alongside the original. This field is optional but strongly recommended for audit readiness.
Regulations — A multi-select dropdown linking this legal basis to one or more recognised legislative or regulatory frameworks. Options in the list are drawn from the applicable laws configuration your administrator has set up in DPMS compliance settings. Select all frameworks under which this legal basis is relevant. If no applicable laws have been configured in your system, the dropdown will show only "No regulation" as a fallback option. Previously saved regulations are pre-loaded as chips when the screen opens; remove or add as needed.

How this connects to the rest of DPMS

Legal basis records sit at the foundation of the ROPA module. Every Record of Processing Activity that needs a legal justification — which is all of them under GDPR — references one or more records from the legal basis library. When you update a legal basis here, the change is immediately reflected in every ROPA entry that links to it, because DPMS stores a reference to the record's ID, not a snapshot of the name or description.

If you arrived from the ROPA section, after saving you can navigate back to the ROPA index or a specific processing activity to see the updated legal basis name in context.

If you arrived from Compliance Settings → Tags, the back arrow returns you to that tags detail view so you can continue your compliance configuration work.

If you arrived from the Assessment Review Portal, saving returns you automatically to the portal — no extra navigation needed.

The automatic translation feature on the Description field depends on translation or AI credentials being configured in the IT Settings area of DPMS. If those credentials have not been set up, the auto-translate option will still appear, but activating it will not produce results.

The Regulations dropdown options depend on your organisation's applicable laws configuration in DPMS compliance settings. If the list looks shorter than expected, ask your administrator to check that the applicable laws have been loaded.

Tips & common pitfalls

Heads up: After clicking Save, you will stay on the edit screen — this is deliberate, not a sign that the save failed. Look for the success notification that appears briefly on screen to confirm the change was recorded. Use the back arrow to return to the detail view.

Tip: If the Regulations dropdown shows only "No regulation" when you expect a full list of laws, the applicable laws data either hasn't been loaded or hasn't been configured in your system. Contact your DPMS administrator to have the applicable laws set up in the compliance settings.

Back arrow destination varies by context. If you opened this screen from the legal basis detail view, the back arrow takes you back there. If you came from the Compliance Settings → Tags screen, it returns you to that screen. If you came from the Assessment Review Portal, it returns you to the portal. This can be surprising if you navigated here from an unexpected starting point.
Previously selected regulations may show blank labels. When the edit screen loads, it looks up each saved regulation key in the current applicable laws configuration to display its name. If a regulation was valid when originally saved but has since been removed from the system's configuration, its chip may appear with an empty or missing label. The underlying value is still saved correctly — only the displayed label is missing. Contact your administrator to reinstate the removed regulation in the applicable laws configuration if needed.
Concurrent edits are protected. DPMS includes a concurrency control mechanism: each save request includes a token that represents the version you loaded. If a colleague saves the same record while you have it open, your next save attempt will be rejected by the server to prevent accidentally overwriting their changes. If you receive an unexpected error when saving, refresh the page to load the latest version and re-apply your edits.
Auto-translate needs prior setup. The Description field's automatic translation option only works if translation or AI credentials have been configured in the IT Settings section of DPMS. If those credentials are not present, activating auto-translate sends the instruction to the backend, but no translations will be generated — the description will remain in its original language only. There is no on-screen warning about this; the option appears regardless of whether translation is configured.