HC Deb 19 July 1990 vol 176 cc695-6W
Mr. Cohen

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security 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.

Mrs. Gillian Shephard

The total number of subject access requests from the Department's records from October 1987 to 13 July 1990 is 1,420. This includes those made of the then DHSS up to July 1988. The original estimate in 1987 of the number of such requests in DHSS was based on a 0.3 per cent. take-up of requests by data subjects, or 210,000 per annum. No subject access fee is charged by the Department.