New funding regime for the Information Commissioner’s Office - Government response to BDRC consultation
The Government’s response to the targeted consultation on new charges payable by data controllers to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
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The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is primarily funded through charges levied on data controllers (people and organisations that handle personal data). The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) effectively removes the requirement for data controllers to register with (‘notify’) the Information Commissioner and pay notification fees. In 2017, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), in conjunction with the ICO, commissioned an independent market research company, to conduct a targeted consultation on a proposed new charge regime for data controllers, to replace notification fees.
Following from this consultation,The Data Protection (Charges and Information) Regulations 2018 implement a new charge structure for the ICO effective from 25 May 2018.
In its response to the consultation, Government has set out its rationale for the new charge regime. In particular, Government endeavoured to ensure that individuals and small businesses would not be subject to undue burdens as a result of the new charge structure and would not subsidise organisations with typically higher levels of information risk such as large businesses and public sector organisations.