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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps to ensure that the Information Commissioner's office has sufficient resources to enable it to enforce the General Data Protection Regulations when those Regulations come into force.

Government is committed to ensuring that the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is able to continue to function as a world class regulator, working effectively across the UK to safeguard the rights of individuals in relation to their data. To this end, we have granted the ICO pay flexibility up to 2020/21 so it can review and update its pay and grading structure, to ensure that the organisation is in the best position to develop and retain effectively its existing resources and expertise.

We have also recently introduced new data protection charges, which will provide an increase of over £10 million per annum to the ICO’s income. These increased funds will also enable the ICO to continue to develop the level of expertise available to it and, pivotally, to recruit an additional 30% of their current headcount to support its ongoing data protection work, including its regulatory obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The Commissioner has said of our actions that she is “confident that this will allow me to prepare the ICO for its critical role under the new dat"a protection regime ensuring that the UK has a strong and expert regulator in an area recognised for its importance to the digital economy and society as a whole."