§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 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. CurryDuring the period that the Data Protection Act has been in force the Department has received 220 requests for subject access, including one from a member of the public, for which a fee was charged. Based on central guidance, it was estimated orginally that around 3,200 requests might have been received in this period.
There have been very few inquiries on subject access from members of the public and there is no evidence to suggest that the fee is an inhibiting factor. Therefore we are not at present reconsidering the subject access fee charged by the Department.