Information Commissioner clarified matters for a complainant

What happened

Mr V complained that ICO had not answered his questions about how The Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) Regulations 2002 (the Regulations) interacted with the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act). He wanted to know whether the Regulations could effectively override the Act, and if they could, he wanted an explanation of why that was.

What we found

ICO sent several emails to Mr V to answer his question. It was only once we became involved that it provided him with a reasonable response, which gave him the answer he needed. ICO apologised for that fact. However, some of that response confused Mr V further because it criticised some of its earlier work, which was not justified. ICO clarified that for us, and confirmed that its handling of Mr V's complaint had not been as bad as it had originally suggested. We partly upheld the case as a result.

Putting it right

ICO apologised to Mr V for its mistakes as soon as we were involved. It later gave us more information which clarified its position. We were able to pass that to Mr V, to resolve the confusion.