Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) – Data Protection fee
18th June 2021
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has recently written to many Residents Associations requesting payment of a Data Protection fee. Essentially every organisation or sole trader who processes personal information is liable to pay this fee unless exempt. The ICO defines personal information means any detail concerning a living individual which can be used on its own or with other data to identify them. The fee ranges from £40 to £2900 depending on the size and turnover of the organisation or sole trader. For most bodies this fee will be much smaller, between £40 to £60 with no VAT. The ICO website provides a calculator to work out the fee payable and a handy self-assessment tool to establish if you are exempt.
This statement is only intended as guidance for our members. We strongly advise you complete the self-assessment tool on the ICO website (link here) to establish if the fee is payable by your particular organisation. This will need to be properly assessed on a case-by-case basis. Generally most residents associations will be exempt from the fee as they hold and use personal data for their own internal matters. Storing, updating or recording personal data of itself will not make the fee payable. Other factors which are taken into account include whether your organisation has control over how that personal information is used.. An example where the fee may become payable is at the point where CCTV footage is shared with the police for crime prevention purposes. However, this is not entirely clear and would need to be explored further. Currently domestic CCTV does not trigger payment of the fee. What happens if the footage is shared remains to be seen.
We recommend obtaining specific advice for your particular organisation.
FPRA chairman, Bob Smytherman says: “The FPRA can review our members circumstances and offer an independent view but members must do their own due diligence for deciding whether or not to register with the ICO.”