Complaints and c oncerns Opportunities for improvement

1. Complaints and concerns Opportunities for improvement

2. The Information Commissioner’s Office is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals

3. Complaints handling volumes • Demand for our complaints handling services has remained high • Last year 40,000 enquiries • Approximately 14,000 data protection cases • Approximately 6,000 individual complaints investigations

4. A proposed change in emphasis • “To use customer complaints, concerns and self-reported incidents to improve information rights practices amongst organisations”

5. We want to • Consider reported concerns but have choices about how far to investigate • Concentrate on identifying and addressing areas of significant non compliance • Extract information from complaints to better understand public concerns and the impact of our actions

6. We will • • Provide advice to help you understand your obligations. • • Talk to you or meet with you informally to help you get things right. • • Audit or advise on your business processes to help you assure your practices for the future.

7. We expect organisations to • • Engage with your customers or clients to clearly explain your practices to them, including how they have been applied in their specific case. • • Be prepared for us, as the regulator, to judge your practices in a specific case based on the clarity and thoroughness of your response to your customer or client's concerns. • • Commit to actions we, as the regulator, may recommend to improve your practices.

8. We want organisations to know • • We will publish the number of public concerns raised with us about your organisation's information rights practice. • • If we ask you to commit to actions to improve your information rights practice we will want to publish your plans on our website. • • We want you to be willing to share positive examples of improvements to your information rights practice with us so we can share your achievements with the public.

9. Our assessment framework • Seriousness of issue • X • Appropriateness of response • + • Other accumulated information / intelligence • = • Opportunity… • “To use customer complaints, concerns and self-reported incidents to improve information rights practices amongst organisations”

10. What happens next … • We have issued a response to our public consultation • We still want to hear, collect and reflect on views offered today • We are planning to go live with a revised service from 1 April • Our approach will be proportionate and effective – listening to information rights experiences and using them to improve compliance with the law and how organisations deliver information rights practices.

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