The Information Commissioner’s Office is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.
Find out what personal information is held about you
Access information from a public body
Prevent unwanted sales calls and spam emails
Find out information about the environment
10 February - Councils must take data protection seriously, Information Commissioner warns
Five councils breached the Data Protection Act by failing to keep people’s personal information secure ...
8 February - ICO statement on Devolution minutes
The ICO has published a response to the government's decision to veto disclosure of minutes from the Cabinet Committee ...
Following an investigation by the ICO in 2005, Steve Whittamore pleaded guilty to breaching the Data Protection Act. During the investigation, the ICO recovered a number of notebooks in which Whittamore had recorded personal details relating to some 4,000 people.
We have now established a fast-track service to speed up the process for those wanting to find out whether anything is recorded about them in these notebooks.
Find out more
We have published a new plain English Guide to Freedom of Information to help public authorities better understand what the Act says and how to apply it.
The guide takes a straight-forward look at the law and explains in simple terms what organisations need to do to comply, including how to respond to requests and deciding what information they should routinely publish.
View the Guide to Freedom of Information
The ICO's guidance about the issue of monetary penalties has been revised to incorporate changes to the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. These changes enable the Information Commissioner to serve a monetary penalty notice on a person who seriously breaches the 2003 Regulations.