Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what is the current (a) position title, (b) post and (c) duties of the interim Chief Executive Officer of the Information Commissioner's Office.

The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 established the Information Commission, a new body corporate that will assume the ICO's regulatory functions to become the UK's independent data protection regulator. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) are working closely on this transition, and while a date for it has not yet been set, work is well advanced.

The Information Commission will be led by a chair, chief executive, and other non-executive and executive members with shared decision-making responsibility. The new Board will be appointed as part of the transition process.

For clarity, there is no role titled “interim Chief Executive Officer of the Information Commissioner’s Office”. Following an open competition run by the ICO in March 2025, Paul Arnold was appointed as Interim Chief Executive of the Information Commission, a position which he will formally assume when the transition to the Information Commission takes place. He may serve in that role for a period of up to two years, after which time a recruitment process will be undertaken to fill the role on a permanent basis.

The Data (Use and Access) Act provides that the permanent Chief Executive will be appointed through open and fair competition by the Commission's non-executive members, in consultation with the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology.

Paul Arnold is currently serving as Interim Chief Executive Designate of the Information Commission, alongside his Deputy Commissioner responsibilities at the ICO. In his interim CEO designate role, Paul is leading and overseeing the transition to the new Information Commission. As for the use of titles, this, like other day-to-day operational matters, is a question for the independent regulator. I expect the ICO may have used "CEO" for brevity, but that would be for them to confirm.