The Information Commissioner’s Office is today urging recruitment agencies to meet their obligations under the Data Protection Act.

Under the Act, organisations that process personal information must notify with the ICO. Failure to notify with the ICO can result in prosecution and fines. The ICO has successfully prosecuted a number of organisations for failing to notify, including a recruitment company which had to pay a £2000 fine.

Approximately 50% of recruitment and employment agencies have not notified the ICO are therefore not currently registered as data controllers.

Any that have not done so should notify the ICO immediately. The ICO will begin taking further action against those that have failed to notify.

Notification is an important legal requirement under the Data Protection Act. Compliance with data protection principles ensures that individuals’ personal information is secure, accurate, up-to-date and processed fairly. Failure to notify is a serious offence and the ICO will not hesitate to take action against those organisations that flout the law in this way”.
Said Chief Operating Officer at the ICO, Simon Entwisle