§ Mr. Cohenasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what is his Department's policy towards fees for subject access under the terms of the Data Protection Act; how many register entries his Department has; and what would be the total cost to a data subject seeking access to personal data held under all register entries.
§ Mr. StanleyThe Northern Ireland Office and each of the Northern Ireland Departments are setting subject access fees, within the prescribed maximum fee of £10,610W which are intended to recover the full costs of the subject access service except where circumstances justify a free or subsidised service.
A total of 55 part A, coupled with 125 part B registrations, have been made.
The total subject access cost from any one data subject would depend on the number of register entries holding personal data on that individual excluding those accesses which are being supplied free. Fees already set are in the range of £5–£8.