Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to help reduce waiting times for complaints and enquiries to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

While DSIT acts as the ICO’s sponsor department within government, it is an independent regulator and accountable to Parliament.

To address their backlog, the ICO has introduced a new data protection complaints framework that sets out how it assesses and prioritises each case and determines the extent to which it is appropriate to investigate. This approach is designed to help the ICO focus its resources on the most serious issues and provide more timely outcomes. The framework can be viewed at: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/data-protection-framework/.

From 19 June 2026 when relevant provisions in the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 come into force, controllers will also be required to have a process in place to acknowledge data protection complaints from members of the public within a month of receipt and respond to the complaint without undue delay. If complaints are dealt with effectively by organisations, this will further reduce pressure on ICO’s resources.