Clifford Chance

New ICO Guidance on Data Subject Access Requests: Clarity restored – October 2020

23 October 2020

Data subject access requests (DSAR's) have been a feature of data protection law since the Data Protection Act 1988 and continue to be so. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has just published new detailed guidance on the Right of Access (New Guidance). This replaces the initial ICO guidance of April 2018 and is intended to clarify or assist with issues that organisations have faced in relation to DSARs since then.

Following its consultation on the draft DSAR Guidance the ICO has revised its proposed approach in some regards providing clarity on the three key points:

• stopping the clock for clarification;

• what is a manifestly excessive request; and

• what can be included when charging a fee for excessive, unfounded or repeat requests.

This Briefing explores these areas of the New Guidance in more detail below, and highlights where organisations

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