Statement from the ICO on data protection complaint response times

"Anyone who has felt the need to make a complaint to us deserves a timely response. Our current response times are not where we want them to be, and we know how frustrating this is for people who are asking for our help.

"We are committed to getting back to meeting our target of responding to 80% of complaints within 90 days and are introducing several initiatives over the coming months that we believe will help us to achieve this. This includes recruiting 19 staff to help us deal with the ongoing increase in complaints that we are seeing each month. For context, from October to December 2024, we received 746 more complaints compared to the same period in 2023.

"We are also exploring how we can improve our processes by using automated tools. For example, we are currently testing options that can simplify or speed up certain administrative tasks so that case officers can spend more time on the complaint itself.

"We want to thank people for their patience while we address this issue. Our frontline staff continue to work hard to respond to all complaints and we are confident that our approach will bring about the necessary improvements. Please be assured that we continue to triage cases and prioritise those that urgently need attention.” 