The Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) in the United Kingdom, is an independent government authority and reports directly to Parliament. The commissioner's role is to be the independent champion of public openness and personal privacy, particularly in respect of elements of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Since the appointment of Richard Thomas as Commissioner, the OIC has been particularly noted for raising serious concerns over the Government's proposed British national identity card and database, as well as other similar databases such as the Citizen Information Project, stating that the country is in danger of sleepwalking into a surveillance society [1] (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1218615_1,00.html), drawing attention to the misuse of such information by the former states of the Eastern bloc and Franco's Spain.

Data Protection Act

The United Kingdom as a member of the European Union is subject to a strict regime of Data Protection. The Data Protection Act 1984 created the post of Data Protection Registrar with whom people processing personal data had to register. Under the provisions of EC Directive 95/46 (introduced in the UK as the Data Protection Act 1998, rather than as an SI under the Single European Act 1986) the name of the post was changed to the Data Protection Commissioner.

You can search the register of data controllers (http://forms.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/search.html) at the website of the IC (http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/), which also gives links to his counterparts around Europe.

Freedom of Information Act

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 the Commissioner's role was expanded to include freedom of information and the job title was changed to Information Commissioner ('IC').

List of Information Commissioners

• Richard Thomas (appointed December 2, 2002)
• Elizabeth France (appointed January 30, 2001)

Similar roles in Europe

The role of the IC is mirrored throughout the countries of the European Union and EEA who have equivalent officials created under their versions of Directive 95/46.

See also

• Departments of the United Kingdom Government
• UK topics

External links

• http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/