Information Commissioner given new powers to punish data breaches

A Parliamentary ambush has handed new powers to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) allowing the privacy watchdog to impose fines on organisations that "deliberately or recklessly" violate the Data Protection Act. John Stokdyk reports.

The new powers were created by an opposition amendment to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act, which received Royal Assent on 9 May.

Following recent data losses by Whitehall departments, the government had set in train a review of the data protection penalty regime.

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