§ Mr. Cohenasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many registrations his Department has made under the Data Protection Act; how many people are involved with implementing the legislation in his Department as a significant part of their job description; and how much he estimates it will cost to conform with the eight data protection principles.
§ Mr. Chris PattenMy Department has made applications to the Data Protection Registrar covering a total of 20 separate database operations. These have been grouped as eight part A applications with a total registration fee of £176. Four members of staff are currently involved to a significant extent with implementation of the legislation: the proportion of their time involved represents about the equivalent of one half of one full-time staff member.
In a full year the cost to the Department will be approximately £10,000 (including the registration fee). This sum represents mainly the annual basic costs of the staff mentioned; further costs cannot be assessed at 12W present with any accuracy but are likely to be minimal in that the Departments data handling procedures are already broadly in line with the data protection principles.