Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with the Information Commissioner on the trading of sensitive personal and financial data.

The Department does not hold estimates on the number of companies that trade personal data that are not registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) requires every data controller who is processing personal information to register with the ICO unless they are exempt. Failure to do so is a criminal offence. Information on registration can be found on the ICO's website at: www.ico.org.uk