The ICO has been sending letters out to companies reminding them of the potential need to pay a fee to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as required by the 2018 regulations relating to data protection. Don’t overlook it!
It really is a pretty easy thing and the fee is not high fee for most. (The fee is in three tiers of £40, £60 and then the third of up £2,900 (the third tier being only for those organisations with a turnover of £36 million or more.))
It is the case that most organisations that handle personal information must pay the fee. There are some exceptions and there is a self assessment questionnaire available on the ICO website to enable you to assess if you need to pay or not.
If you do not pay the fee when you need to it is a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of a £4,350 fine.
If you do not pay the fee you are not searchable on the register. A failure may suggest to anyone who searches for you on the register that you have probably failed more generally to comply with Data Protection requirements.
Even if you are exempt from the fee you must still comply with the other provisions of the data protection legislation and it may be advisable to pay the fee voluntarily for public transparency – and in case any of your processing extends beyond the scope of the exemptions during the course of the relevant year.
The fee is payable annually and each entity within a corporate group must pay.
Further Information
If you have any questions regarding the above or require additional information or assistance, please contact Ben Habershon Ben.Habershon@dixcartlegal.com or call us on +44 (0)333 122 0010.
