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Information Commissioner

Answer

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is an independent body created by statute. Its responsibilities include handling complaints made under the Data Protection Act 1998, Freedom of Information Act 2000, Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 and Environmental Information Regulations 2004.The ICO's freedom of information work is funded by grant in aid paid through my department. Separately, the ICO's data protection work is funded by the notification fees it receives when data controllers register with the ICO and which the Office is allowed to retain with the Treasury's agreement. Within this funding framework, as an independent office, the ICO has autonomy to decide how to allocate resources to discharge its statutory responsibilities.The Government are committed fully to both freedom of information and data protection. My Department and the ICO regularly review the resources available to his office and as part of that dialogue my Department provides constructive challenge to ensure that the ICO delivers maximum efficiency and secures the best value from the public money allocated for its statutory responsibilities.In each of the last four financial years, my Department has given the ICO additional funding for his freedom of information work. This year the additional funding represented a 10 per cent. increase on his baseline.In addition, the Ministry of Justice has promoted a secondment scheme to assist the ICO in tackling the outstanding backlog of freedom of information cases. Under the scheme secondees from central Government Departments, paid for by their Departments, will work at the ICO to assist with clearing the backlog. This was in response to the Commissioner's request for staffing as well as funding.My Department is also in discussion with the ICO about funding for its data protection responsibilities. Government have agreed to consider new powers for the ICO for data protection inspections and that the fee arrangements should be reviewed to ensure that new powers are accompanied by funding to support the exercise of these powers.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

479 c64-5W;479 c62-3W; 217112

Session

2007-08

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Subjects

Information Commissioner's Office

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk