---

Data Protection: Prosecutions

Answer

Prosecutions for non-notification under section 17 of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) can be instituted by the Information Commissioner or by, or with the consent of, the Director of Public Prosecutions.Data on all prosecutions under the DPA are collected by the Ministry of Justice's Office for Criminal Justice Reform. Data are collected under specific codes and not on individual case circumstances. Data on the number of prosecutions for non-notification of the processing of personal data under section 17 of the Act therefore cannot be separately identified and data are not available. The information could be provided only at disproportionate costThe Information Commissioner's Office maintains details of prosecutions that they have instituted for non-notification under section 17 of the DPA. Since the introduction of the DPA on 1 March 2000 the Information Commissioner's Office has successfully prosecuted 26 cases under section 17 of the DPA, the details of the penalties imposed in these cases are: one penalty was a conditional discharge, one penalty was linked with other more serious charges and resulted in a sentence of 18 months probation and 150 hours of community service and 24 of the penalties were fines as shown in the table:

Number of convictions	Amount of fine (£)
4	100
4	200
2	250
4	300
2	350
1	400
2	500
1	750
1	750
2	5000
1	5750

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

144332; 462 c338W

Session

2006-07

Subjects

Data protection Prosecutions

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk