Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate she has made of the potential cost to parish councils of complying with the General Data Protection Regulation.

Parish Councils, like other data controllers, are currently required to adhere to the Data Protection Act 1998. Although the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) does change the requirements on data controllers, the Government's view is that the step up to these new standards will not be a disproportionate burden. For example, to assist with the transition, the Information Commissioner has launched a dedicated helpline service for smaller organisations and has updated its 'SME toolkit' to reflect the requirements of the GDPR.