§ Mr. Cohenasked the Secretary of State for Social Services 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. WhitneyA total of 31 individual registrations were made in respect of systems in the Department. There are currently 15 staff wholly or mainly engaged on the implementation of the Data Protection Act and a number of other staff spend a smaller part of their time on this work. Departmental working practices and procedures are such that the Department was, in effect, already complying with the requirements of data protection principles 1 to 6 and 8, and any additional costs have not been significant. The cost of implementing the seventh principle will depend on the rate at which the new facility is taken up, and a reliable estimate is not possible. The Department will continue to respond sympathetically to any requests for information and will comply with the subject access provisions of the Data Protection Act in due course.