Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps have been taken and what steps they plan to take to increase the number of registrations with the Information Commissioner’s Office; what estimate they have made of the consequential annual increase in income, and of the recovery of lost income from those who have not paid the required fee as data controllers; and what assessment they have made of current levels of fees.

The Data Protection Act 1998 requires every data controller who is processing personal information to register with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) unless they are exempt. Failure to do so is a criminal offence.

The ICO’s website sets out the criteria for notification and provides guidance on the level of fee organisations should be paying. The ICO have also made it easier for organisations to notify and pay the fee by introducing online payments.

In 2014/15 the ICO brought eight prosecutions against organisations for non-notification and two prosecutions for wrong purposes.

The Ministry of Justice and the ICO are looking at the current funding model as part of negotiations on the proposed EU Data Protection Regulation.