Registration under either Act carries a fee, the proceeds of which fund the costs of the ICO. Any entry may be inspected by the public at any time at no cost to the enquirer.[2]
Data Protection Act 1998
Under the 1998 Act, the name of the data controller was recorded [3] with the purpose(s) for the processing of the data processed by that controller within the meaning of the Act.[2][4][5]
The 1998 Act established a distinction between data controllers and data processors, to whom distinct legal and governance obligations applied:[6] data controllers determined the purposes for which personal data was held or processed, whereas data process data on behalf of another data controller.[1]: Section 1(1)
A data controller may, under some circumstances, be exempt from registration (previously termed notification).[7] When not exempt,[8] failure to notify the Information Commissioner's Office formally before the start of processing data was a strict liability offence for which a prosecution may be brought by the Information Commissioner's Office in the criminal court of the UK.[9] Failure to notify was a criminal offence unless exempt. Exemption from registration does not exempt a data controller from compliance with The Act.
Amendments to a data controller's notification could be made at any time, and must have been made before the start of a new processing purpose.
Data Protection Act 2018
Under the 2018 Act, the register is called the register of fee payers, and the purposes for processing are nor supplied, though other trading names and the name of a Data Protection Officer may be given.[10][11] The distinction between data controllers and data processors remains in place.[12] As of July 2024[update] the ICO reports that there are over one million registered fee payers.[10]
The enforcement of the Act by the Information Commissioner's Office is supported by a data protection charge on UK data controllers under the Data Protection (Charges and Information) Regulations 2018. Exemptions from the charge were left broadly the same as for 1998 Act: largely some businesses and non-profits internal core purposes (staff or members, marketing and accounting), household affairs, some public purposes, and non-automated processing.[13][14] Under the 2018 Act, the enforcement regime for registration changed from criminal to civil monetary penalties.[15]
^"Register of Data Controllers". The Advertising Protection Agency. Archived from the original on 7 January 2011. Retrieved 22 March 2012. The ICO then publishes certain details from the registration data in the register of data controllers which is available to the public for inspection.
^"Notifying the Information Commissioner's Office about personal information". Business Link. Retrieved 22 March 2012. The Data Protection Act 1998 requires businesses to give details about the way they process personal information to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for inclusion in a public register, unless they are exempt. This is called notification.
^"Register of Data Controllers - University of Strathclyde". University of Strathclyde. Retrieved 22 March 2012. Every organisation that processes, i.e. holds and uses, personal information must be registered with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), unless they are exempt. This registration is a statutory requirement under the Data Protection Act and failure to notify the ICO is a criminal offence.
