Change of Style for UK's Information Commissioner

The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is restructuring its leadership along more collective lines, as it both gears up for forthcoming changes in EU data protection law and reacts to recommendations in the high profile Leveson enquiry.

The organisation's two deputy commissioners will stand down over the next month, while the government's 'Triennial Review' of the ICO has been delayed but is also due soon. Data Commissioner Christopher Graham said in a post that a new 12-member senior management team will be in place by November, replacing a team of three with which he has worked for the past six years. Graham, quoted on www.governmentcomputing.com , comments: 'The change marks a move towards a more collective model of leadership at the ICO which is now a significantly bigger and more complex operation than the one I joined in 2009'.

Replacing the two experienced deputy commissioners - Freedom of Information (FoI) director Graham Smith and data protection director David Smith - is seen as 'particularly challenging' after the delay to the Triennial Review, which leaves the regulator future remit unclear for the moment. Findings will be published 'in due course'.

Quoting Lord Justice Leveson's recommendation that the information commissioner should no longer be constituted as a 'corporation sole, Graham said: 'I felt I could not simply replace the two Smiths with like for like appointments. Instead, and to promote the greater shared decision making advocated by Leveson, I have widened the leadership cadre at the top of the ICO and opted for much greater collective consideration of regulatory matters'.

Current Deputy CEO Simon Entwisle will now take a dual role as the organisation's deputy commissioner with full delegated authority from November 1st,while Graham himself is due to step down from the lead role next June after seven years, with the vacancy to be advertised shortly.

Web site: www.ico.org.uk .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.