Equality and diversity
We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in all we do. We want to eliminate barriers that prevent people accessing our services or enjoying employment opportunities within the ICO.
We are committed to developing our staff and to fair and inclusive employment practices. We will work proactively to make sure that there are no restrictions to building and developing a diverse workforce.
As a UK public body, we are positive about our duties and obligations under Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and Welsh Language Act 1993. For further information, please see our Welsh Language Scheme.
If you require any assistance when accessing our services, please contact our helpline on 0303 123 1113 where a member of our Customer Services Team will be happy to help.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion objectives: 2023-2028
Information rights are ultimately about people – relationships, trust, equality, democracy and dignity.
At the ICO, we value what makes us unique, to better understand and serve our customers, society and the economy. This means the ICO as a workforce, employer and regulator must be equal, diverse and inclusive. We’re making sure equality, diversity and inclusion is a thread that runs through every aspect of the ICO.
Our EDI objectives cover three areas. They are supported by our EDI action plan. The action plan details what we will deliver, by when, who is responsible for delivery and how we will know we have achieved our objectives.
Data Protection Practitioners' Conference 2024
As part of our commitment to ensuring our events are inclusive and accessible for everyone, we’re asking you to provide Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) information if you're attending the Data Protection Practitioners' Conference. It’s voluntary and anonymous and not traceable to your registration for the DPPC event.
We’ll use this data to help us understand who we’re reaching through our DPPC event, and where we can make improvements.
For information about what we do with personal data please see our privacy notice.
Publishing equality information
As part of our duty under equality laws, we publish information about actions we are taking to promote equality and diversity and achieve our equality objectives.
Under Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 we are also required to submit an annual progress report to the Northern Ireland Equality Commission.
The ICO is obliged to publish information Pay Gap information. As well as that information being available on the website of the Government Equalities Office, the most recently available data can be found here.
The ICO has conducted Equality Impact Assessments, which help to assess the equality relevance of a policy or procedure on one or more groups of people with protected characteristics.
If you need to contact us via the phone and you are deaf or have a hearing or speech impairment, you can use the free BT service Relay UK.
Install the free app, which you can access on your device's app store, on your smartphone, tablet, or computer. Then, call our advice line on 0303 123 1113, from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
The Relay UK service itself is free. You'll only pay your normal charges for the calls.
If you want to use your textphone to contact us, dial 18001 followed by 0303 123 1113.
Alternatively, you can also contact us using our live chat.