Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
The UK data protection and freedom of information regulator.
Overview
The ICO enforces UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act and electronic marketing rules, issues guidance and can impose fines.
Its powers include supervising and examining the organisations it oversees and investigating and imposing penalties.
In the United Kingdom it works at national level. Instruments connected to it in this glossary include UK GDPR.
Check the official sources below for legal scope, applicable dates and exceptions. This entry is an explanatory reference, not legal advice.
Why it matters
Its examinations and expectations often decide outcomes more than the text of the law.
Who it affects
Organisations in privacy data protection in the United Kingdom.
Where it sits
Ten linked steps connect where you operate to the proof that you complied.
- 01Jurisdiction
- 02Industry
- 03Activity
- 04Authority
- 05Regulation
- 06Requirement
- 07Guidance
- 08Control
- 09Evidence
- 10Enforcement
Connections
The terms most closely tied to ICO. Select one to open it.
What to do about it
- 1Confirm whether ICO has power over you, and through which licence, registration, membership or activity.
- 2Follow its rules, guidance and enforcement publications as they are issued.
- 3Map each obligation it creates to a control with a named owner.
- 4Keep examination-ready evidence for its highest-risk obligations.
From requirement to evidence.
Regulation Layer tracks its publications in the change feed, maps its obligations to your controls, and links its enforcement actions to the obligations they cite.
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