Information Commissioner on her privacy role over 2001-2002

This is Ms France’s eighth and final annual report to Parliament before stepping down from the £90,000 post. In October, she will begin a new role as the country’s first Telecoms Ombudsman, heading a new industry-funded consumer body.

In her foreword to the report, Ms France writes:

"…we have an increased data protection caseload which has climbed from just under 8,000 last year to more than 12,000 this year. The percentage of those aware of their own right of subject access has risen from 27% to 42%."

Other figures in the report include:

• 12,479 complaints or requests for assessment were received in the 12 month period ended 31st March 2002, including 2,588 complaints of breaches of the Telecommunications Regulations.
• The total number of complaints/requests received for the year 2000/2001 was 7,804; for 1999/2000 it was just 4335.
• In 2001/2002, the most common subjects of complaints/requests were consumer credit (23%) followed by telecoms (21%).
• There were 66 offences prosecuted in 2001/2002, but only 33 convictions, 18 of which were cases of unlawfully procuring information, 12 of which were cases of data users using data for unregistered purposes.
• Of the 33 total convictions, 10 were against company directors.
• Only 4 enforcement notices were issued over course of the year.

The report and accounts for the financial year ending 31st March 2002 are available as an 88-page, 861KB PDF from the Information Commissioner’s web site.