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Information Commissioner enjoys new powers to fine
ICO to get new powers to fine as of April 2010
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This From: Out-Law News, July 22, 2009
http://www.out-law.com

Information Commissioner enjoys new powers to fine from April 2010
http://www.out-law.com/page-10188

OUT-LAW News,
22/07/2009

Privacy regulator the Information Commissioner will be handed new powers to
issue fines next April. The Commissioner's office has confirmed for the
first time the date on which it will be able to hand out new fines.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) was promised the long
lobbied-for powers by Government but no date had been set. The ICO says that
it has been told the new powers will take effect in April.

Under the Data Protection Act (DPA) the ICO cannot issue fines for breaches
of the eight data protection principles at the heart of the law. From next
April that will change and it will be able to issue fines for knowing or
reckless breaches of the Act's principles.

"The ICO has pressed strongly for monetary penalties where the Data
Protection Act has been knowingly or recklessly breached. Penalties are
being introduced next April, but are not yet in force," said an ICO
statement.

A spokesman for the ICO said that it did not yet know how much it would be
allowed to fine people and organisations, and that there was "some work
still being done" on the fines.

The fines can be levied by the ICO when one of the eight principles have
been seriously breached, but only if the ICO is convinced that the breach
was deliberate or that the data controller knew, or ought to have known, of
the contravention risk, and that the contravention would be likely to cause
substantial damage or substantial distress and that the controller failed to
take action to stop it. <| Powered by www.ISPIClips.com |>

The power to make the changes were introduced in the Criminal Justice and
Immigration Act in 2008.

The Ministry of Justice is the Government department responsible for the
changes, but it had no comment to make on the timescale.

Rosemary Jay, a privacy law expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind
OUT-LAW.COM, said that it was "surprising" that the date was announced by
the ICO and not by the Ministry of Justice.

"Data controllers should be warned that they cannot rely on this timetable,"
she said. "The date has not been announced or confirmed by the relevant
Government department, the Ministry of Justice; the date of commencement is
in the hands of Parliament and the Government not the ICO."

"The position is complicated by the fact that the power to fine cannot be
brought in until all the preparatory work has been completed and a Code of
Practice issued," she said.

"The fines provisions are part of a wider agenda of increased powers for the
Information Commissioner and observers would expect many of these to be put
forward as a package by Ministers," said Jay. "The ICO will of course have
been working behind the scenes with the Ministry and will be aware of the
proposed timetable but timetables can slip, events can intervene and there
can be no certainty until Parliament has agreed the commencement order."