Last Friday we woke up to the news that (not only has Andy Burnham won the Makerfield by-election) John Edwards has resigned as Information Commissioner and Chair of the newly formed Information Commission. The latter position was given to him as a result of The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 which will soon transition the ICO into the Information Commission.
The news was posted by Edwards on LinkedIn. It follows an ICO HR Investigation which concluded there was a “case to answer”. There was some clue as to the reason for the ICO investigation in Edwards post on LinkedIn:
“From the time the investigation was launched, I have accepted that there have been occasions where I exercised poor judgement and made attempts at humour that were inappropriate and caused offence.”
Later on Friday the ICO released its official statement which said:
“The independent workplace investigation relating to Mr Edwards reached findings for DSIT to consider. The investigation concluded that there was a case to answer and made clear that his behaviour fell short of the conduct expected from a public official.”
[Note: The ICO updated its stamen on Saturday to give more detail about the allegations.]
Then on Saturday Liz Kendall, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, took time out from trying to persuade Keir Starmer to resign, to post an “update” on LinkedIn giving more details:
“I have seen evidence of the vulgar and highly sexualised language that was used in his interactions with his staff and am extremely concerned that he continues to describe these incidents as misplaced humour, including on his social media post announcing his resignation. Such conduct does not belong in the workplace, least of all exhibited by the leader of an organisation.”
So what happens now? Don’t expect the ICO’s “robust enforcement” of IG rights to stop. (Well in a parallel universe at least!) Senior staff at the ICO have been carrying out the Commissioner’s functions since his suspension and will no doubt continue while the search starts for a new chair.
As we have said before, there has been a surprising lack of transparency about this whole issue from a statutory regulator in the area of, amongst other things, openness and transparency.
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