§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many subject access requests under the terms of the Data Protection Act his Department has received; what was his estimate of the number of requests that would be received; what consideration he is giving to the subject access fee charged by his Department as a result; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Peter LloydDuring the period 11 November 1987 to 16 July 1990 the Department received 35 requests for subject access. It was not judged possible, at the time when the provisions came into operation, to make any firm advance estimate of likely take-up, but there was an indication, on the basis of experience in other European countries, that requests might be in the range 0.1 to 1 per cent. per annum of records held—that is, between 5,400 and 54,000 requests per year to be addressed to the Home Office. I have no plans to reconsider the subject access fees charged by the Department.