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Subject access request response time ICO reprimand overview:
- Who: The U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) reprimanded Virgin Media, the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office, the Kent Police and the London Boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth and Hackney.
- Why: The ICO’s reprimand followed an investigation during which it said it found the organisations failed to respond promptly enough to subject access requests from the public.
- Where: The investigation is nationwide in the UK.
Britain’s privacy authority reprimanded Virgin Media, the Ministry of Defence and five government organisations over the amount of time it takes for them to respond to requests from people asking to access their personal information.
Following an investigation, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) revealed that it found the businesses and organisations repeatedly failed in meeting the legal deadline set to respond to personal information requests, Law360 reports.
In addition to Virgin Media and the Ministry of Defence, the privacy authority singled out the Home Office, the Kent Police, the London Borough of Croydon, the London Borough of Lambeth and the London Borough of Hackney.
The ICO claims that Virgin Media and the organisations failed to abide by a legal deadline set by the U.K. General Data Protection Regulation and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Law360 reports.
Regulations reportedly stipulate that a private or public organisation shall have one to three months of time to respond to subject access requests filed by individuals seeking to find what personal information an entity has about them.
ICO received ‘series of complaints’ about slow responses to subject access requests
The ICO issued the reprimands after receiving a “series of complaints” about the seven organisations failing to abide by the legal deadlines or to respond at all when tasked with a subject access request from members of the public, Law360 reports.
During a six-month period last year, the ICO says it found Virgin Media in particular failed to respond to 14% of 9,500 subject access requests the company received while the Ministry of Defence was reportedly criticised due to an alleged backlog of subject access requests going back to March 2020.
In addition to issuing the reprimand, the ICO has also levied the councils for the London Boroughs of Croydon and Hackney with a practice recommendation under the Freedom of Information Act, Law360 reports.
Have you had to wait a long time to hear back after filing a subject access request? Let us know in the comments!
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