Having demanded more and quicker improvement following a series of harmful breaches, data watchdog John Edwards has revealed that government has set out a suite of measures to boost compliance

The government is to create new centralised specialist resources to support better data-protection across departments, including a team to maintain “consistent standards and respond swiftly to risks”.

The suite of measures comes after information commissioner John Edwards this summer wrote to the Cabinet Office. The aim of that missive was “insisting that the government must go further and faster to ensure Whitehall, and the wider public sector put their practices in order”, according to a newly published update from the commissioner.

The demand for improvement came in light of a number of data breaches that had a serious impact on victims – including the Ministry of Defence’s disclosure of details of Afghan nationals working for the UK government, and the leak of information concerning serving officers and staff of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Three months on from his initial letter, Edwards has published a public statement indicating that he is “pleased to update that the government has now set out the measures they will take to raise information-security and data-protection standards”.

He said: “The commitments include creating a central, coordinated approach for managing cross-government data protection accountability and compliance; establishing a dedicated team who will set consistent standards and respond swiftly to risks; rolling out new information management training for all civil servants.”

Related content

• Capita given penalty £14m over cyberattack despite urging ICO to apply non-fining public-sector approach
• ICO issues data protection warning over domestic abuse victims after DWP and local councils reprimanded
• ICO: Instead of massive fines, regulation works best when we work alongside organisations

The commissioner added: “Alongside this, we are working on a memorandum of understanding that will explain how we will collaborate with government so its ambitions to use new technologies to transform public services, create a modern digital government, and drive economic growth are done so with the appropriate safeguards in place. We will agree with government on how my office can receive assurance on the delivery and impact of this work.”

The Information Commissioner’s Office has taken a different approach to working with the public sector over the past three years, almost entirely avoiding fines, but increasing the use of public reprimands – which typically issue demands for improved practices.

While progress has been made, Edwards said, the recent breaches involving the MoD – which resulted in a rare fine for a government body – demonstrated the need to go even further.

The commissioner described the latest set of commitments from Whitehall as “a single step forward, but… a crucial one”.

“Government must now carry through on these commitments, to ensure the public can trust and be confident when sharing their personal information with government, knowing that it will be handled responsibly and safely,” he added. “I will continue to update you on how that work progresses.”