ACCA has received a rap over the knuckles from the Information Commissioner’s Office for its failure to provide information under the Data Protection Act in a timely manner.

The institute was criticised following a complaint by a member, after ACCA took a total of 10 months to deal with a request for information. Bodies holding personal data are required to respond to information requests within 40 days.

The ICO judged that for some of this period, ACCA was within its rights to delay, in order to determine what could be disclosed but there was still a further period of five months before anything was provided. This was attributed to the ‘individual dealing with the request not being available for significant periods of time’.

The ICO said the delay highlighted a ‘weakness in ACCA’s subject access procedures’, which has forced the body to undertake a ‘comprehensive review’.

Responding to the complaint, ACCA said that the issue ‘was examined fully by the Information Commissioner’s Office, and found no further case for ACCA to answer’.

‘ACCA is working closely with the Information Commissioner’s Office to ensure that our practices are approved and in accordance with Information Law,’ continued the statement.

For more information on data protection see www.ico.gov.uk