The UK’s data watchdog has taken action against seven organisations, including the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence (MoD), for failing to respond to requests from the public to share personal information held about them.

During an investigation, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) also found that Virgin Media, Kent Police, and the London boroughs of Croydon, Hackney, and Lambeth, all failed to adhere to Subject Access Requests (SAR).

According to the regulator, a SAR must be responded to within one to three months.

Its probe found that the seven organisations "repeatedly" failed to meet this legal deadline.

“SARs and requests made under FOIA are fundamental rights and are an essential gateway to accessing other rights,” said information commissioner John Edwards. “Being able to ask an organisation “what information do you hold on me?” and “how it is being used?” provides transparency and accountability and allows the person to ask for changes to be made or even for the information to be deleted.”

The MoD was issued with a reprimand after the ICO identified a SAR backlog dating back to March 2020.

Despite the department setting up a recovery plan, the backlog has continued to grow, and currently stands at 9,000 SAR requests yet to be responded to.

This has meant that, on average, people were typically waiting over 12 months for their information.

The Home Office had a backlog of just under 21,000 requests between March 2021 and November 2021.

Share Story: