Disclosure of Information: Fees and Charges

(asked on 17th September 2021) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has conducted an equality impact assessment of the introduction of fees to exercise data subject access requests.


Answered by
Julia Lopez Portrait
Julia Lopez
Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
This question was answered on 24th September 2021

The right of access is one of the fundamental rights in data protection legislation and the government will protect it. Subject access requests are a critical transparency mechanism under this right, allowing individuals to check the accuracy of their personal data, learn more about how their data is being used and with whom their data is being shared, and obtain a copy of the data held about them.

The consultation paper Data: A New Direction, published on 10 September, considers whether to re-introduce fees for responding to subject access requests. Any fee regime would be structured fairly so as not to undermine an individual's right to access their personal data.

An initial equality impact assessment has been conducted and a final assessment will be developed during and after the consultation process. Through the consultation, the government is seeking views on what, if any, safeguards should apply in order to mitigate any adverse impacts were this proposal to be pursued further.

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