New Information Commissioner Appointed
Elizabeth Denham has become the new Information Commissioner, responsible for heading up the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which is the UK's regulator ofdata protection and freedom of information laws.
She has taken over from Christopher Graham, who held the post for seven years. Ms Denham's role will be for five years.
This will be a challenging time for Ms Denham, with major changes in data protection law on the horizon. The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been introduced and was due to take effect in the UK in May 2018 and was going to replace the Data Protection Act 1998. However, questions have been raised about what the new regime will be for the UK in light of the Brexit referendum decision. The early indications have been that the UK will introduce a new data protection law that will closely resemble the new EU law. However, as with a number of post-Brexit issues, this will need to be worked through. Ms Denham's lead on the data protection reforms will be eagerly anticipated.
Questions have also been raised over how the ICO will be funded going forward as the GDPR would remove the right for data controllers to notify (or 'register') the ICO each year. Currently, most data controllers have to pay £35 a year for notification. Removing that requirement could see a dent in the regulator's funds. Under the GDPR the regulator would have the power to issue much bigger fines than the current £500,000 maximum - up to 4% of global turnover or, if greater, €20m. However, it is not clear where those fines would go.
These will be interesting times for the regulator.