§ Matthew TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the policy of the Department is for ensuring responses to requests for information under the Data Protection Act 1998 are completed within 40 days; and what their procedure is to achieve this. [33476]
§ Mr. McCartneyThe Department's policy is to reply to all subject access requests as soon as possible and in any event within the 40-day mandatory deadline. The 40 days do not start "ticking" until sufficient information is received from the data subject to satisfy the data controller [DWP] as to the identity of the data subject making the request and to enable him to locate the information that they are seeking.