ICO to recruit more technical expertise

Christopher Graham is overseeing a considerable reoganisation of the ICO

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is to recruit more technical experts to its policy and strategy division as part of a "considerable reorganisation" announced by Information Commissioner Sir Christopher Graham.

Graham told the influential Home Affairs Select Committee yesterday that the ICO's technical expertise needed to improve to help the organisation "spot the next big thing".

An increase in penalties will help pay for the changes, and some of the larger organisations found in breach of data protection laws will pay £500, up from £35, as part of a new tiered fee system.

"At the moment our technical expertise is largely in the forensic area and this has served us in very good stead," said Graham.

"We wanted to be better at looking forward so that we can spot the next big thing before it becomes a huge policy issue for us so that we're ahead of the game."

Graham also revealed an increased public awareness of the right to use Freedom of Information requests to obtain data from public bodies. Some 91 per cent of the public are now aware of their rights under the Data Protection Act to see information held about them, an increase of 17 per cent since 2004.

"It has been a spectacularly productive year," said Graham. "Applications to the ICO have gone up more than 20 per cent, but case closures are up by 40 per cent. This is not an organisation suffering from restraint."

Fresh moves to improve awareness of privacy and information security among young people are also underway, said Graham, including a "student ambassador" campaign on campuses and "a range of characters designed to appeal to quite young children who are very active on Facebook".

"The education side of the ICO is very important at all levels," he said. " We're not satisfied with these [awareness] figures. We've got to drive them up, but we've got the policies to do that."