ICO issues enforcement notice to South West Wales police over SAR backlog
28/10/2025 | ICO
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued an enforcement notice to South Wales Police (SWP) for significant delays in handling subject access requests (SARs). Following an investigation, the ICO found that SWP responded to only 29% of SARs within the statutory time limit between April 2023 and March 2024. As of August 2025, the force had a backlog of 352 overdue requests, with one dating back almost two years. The ICO has ordered SWP to clear this entire backlog by June 2026.
The ICO found that SWP infringed Articles 15(1), 15(3), and 12(3) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as well as Sections 45(1) and (2) and 45(3) of the Data Protection Act 2018.
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