Legal definitions

Charity

In England and Wales, ‘charity’ has the meaning given in section 1 of the Charities Act 2011. In Scotland, it means a body entered in the Scottish Charity register maintained under section 3 of the Charity and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005. In Northern Ireland, it has the meaning given in section 1 of the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008.

Controller

A person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data. Only controllers need to pay the data protection fee.

Data Protection Officer

Under the GDPR, some organisations need to appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO) who is responsible for informing them of and advising them about their data protection obligations and monitoring their compliance with them.

Data subject

The identified or identifiable living individual to whom personal data relates.

Financial year

A controller’s financial year regarding a company is determined in accordance with section 390 of the Companies Act 2006; regarding a limited liability partnership is determined in accordance with section 390 of the Companies Act 2006, as applied by regulation 7 of the Limited Liability Partnerships (Accounts and Audit) (Application of Companies Act 2006) Regulations 2008; and regarding any other case, it means the period, covering 12 consecutive months, over which a controller determines income and expenditure.

Member of staff

Any employee, worker (within the meaning given in section 296 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992) office holder or partner.

Personal data 

Any information relating to a person (a ‘data subject’) who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that person.

Processing

In relation to personal data, means any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal data or on sets of personal data (whether or not by automated means, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure, dissemination, restriction, erasure or destruction).

Processor

A person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller.

Public authority

Means a public authority as defined by the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or a Scottish public authority as defined by the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

Small occupational pension scheme 

Has the meaning given in regulation 4 of the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Consultation by Employers and Miscellaneous Amendment) Regulations 2006.

Turnover

Regarding a company, turnover has the meaning given in section 474 of the Companies Act 2006; regarding a limited liability partnership, it is determined in accordance with section 474 of the Companies Act 2006, as applied by regulation 32 of the Limited Liability Partnerships (Accounts and Audit) (Application of Companies Act 2006) Regulations 2008; and regarding any other case, it means the amounts derived by the controller from the provision of goods and services falling within the controller’s ordinary activities, after deduction of trade discounts, value added tax and any other taxes based on the amounts so derived.