Information Commissioner John Edwards resigns, effective immediately

In an unprecedented announcement, Information Commissioner John Edwards posted on LinkedIn in the early hours of Friday, 19 June 2026, that he had notified the Minister for Digital Government and Data, Ian Murray, of his resignation as Information Commissioner and Chair of the Information Commission, effective immediately.

While the decision to resign is not entirely unexpected, given that the independent HR investigation found there is a case to answer, the news is nonetheless remarkable. 

In his post, Edwards noted that, while he did not agree with how the investigation was conducted after he voluntarily stepped back from his duties on 26 February, he accepts there were occasions when he exercised "poor judjement" and "made attempts at humour that were inappropriate and caused offence." As a result, Edwards concluded that his "position had become untenable."

In a LinkedIn post discussing Edwards' resignation and the next steps, Job Baines wrote that "as a matter of law, the Commissioner doesn’t simply resign: paragraph 3(1) of schedule 12 of the Data Protection Act 2018 requires him to request the King that he be relieved of his office. One wonders if this has already been done."

No doubt the government would have preferred a smooth transition from the current Crown appointee and corporation sole model to a more modern corporate structure with a board under the Information Commission. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. 

At the time of writting, the ICO has yet to release a statrement.

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