Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of prosecutions for breaches of the Data Protection Act 2018 which have resulted in fines in the last 12 months.

The Ministry of Justice has published information regarding the number of prosecutions for offences under the Data Protection Act 2018 in England and Wales which can be found at the following link –

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/804510/HO-code-tool-principal-offence-2018.xlsx

In the ‘Detailed Offence’ field, filter by -

‘Obtain / procure disclose / retain personal data without consent of controller’

The total number of prosecutions that resulted in fines for breaches of the Data Protection Act 2018 will appear in the pivot table.

Note that the above offence was the only breach of the Data Protection Act 2018 for which there were any prosecutions in 2018. The Data Protection Act 2018 consists of 7 other offences for which there were no prosecutions in 2018.

Offences related to the Data Protection Act were introduced in May 2018. The number of prosecutions and those convicted of these offences are therefore relatively low as it takes time for the police to record, investigate and charge offences, before proceedings reach the courts.