Skip to main content

Information Commissioner’s Office: Complaints

Question for Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

UIN 188734, tabled on 9 June 2023

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many and what proportion of complaints made to the Information Commissioner’s Office met the threshold for action in each year since 2019.

Answered on

16 June 2023

The ICO has provided figures for 2021, 2022 and 2023 where the data is held, related to both data protection and Freedom of Information complaints cases. Due to the ICO’s retention and disposal policy, casework data prior to 2021 is no longer held.

You may wish to note that further information on complaints cases and outcomes dating back to 2016/2017 is available in the ICO’s Annual Reports which can be found here.

Data Protection Complaints

2021

%

2022

%

2023

%

Informal Action Taken

16118

37.63

13091

33.96

6351

37.51

Investigation Pursued

13

0.03

9

0.02

7

0.04

No Further Action

26691

62.32

25440

66

10570

62.43

Regulatory Action

6

0.01

6

0.02

3

0.02

Total

42,828

38,546

16,931

Freedom of Information Complaints

(these include Environmental Information Regulation cases)

2021

%

2022

%

2023

%

Informal Action Taken

796

14.06

971

14.69

486

13.80

No Further Action

3524

62.23

3365

50.92

1679

47.66

Decision Notice Served

1343

23.72

2273

34.39

1358

38.55

Total

5663

6609

3523