ICO strips commissioner Edwards of duties in HR inquiry

The UK’s info commissioner, John Edwards, has been quickly stripped of his duties within the wake of a office investigation into as-yet undisclosed allegations.

Edwards initially stepped again from his day-to-day position on the Data Commissioner’s Workplace (ICO) on the finish of February 2026, and in line with the regulator, an impartial probe has now discovered that though there is no such thing as a discovering of any wrongdoing, there’s a case to reply.

As such, stated the ICO, though he has continued to obtain updates from his assist staff and was obtainable if required, Edwards can not act in fulfilling his position for the rest of the method.

“All through this advanced and unprecedented state of affairs, our precedence has been to supply a protected and supportive atmosphere for our employees that permits them to hold out their necessary regulatory work,” stated ICO chief govt Paul Arnold.

“I’ve been enormously happy with the skilled means by which our work has continued throughout the previous months, and the steps we have now taken as we speak will be sure that continues to occur.”

Underneath the ICO’s Scheme of Delegation, Arnold will quickly tackle Edwards’ non-delegable duties, however given the commissioner is accountable to Parliament and never instantly employed by the ICO, the subsequent steps within the course of will now be decided by the Division for Science, Innovation and Know-how (DSIT), stated the info and privateness watchdog.

Laptop Weekly understands Arnold has additionally been designated as short-term appearing accounting officer for the ICO.

In all different regards, the regulator stated, the board, chief exec and govt staff are persevering with to steer the physique to make sure continuity in its core work.

In response to Politico, which was first to interrupt the story again in April, Edwards has returned to New Zealand at the moment, though he continues to attract his £200,000 annual wage, which exceeds that paid to the prime minister.

Based mostly on info obtained beneath the Freedom of Data Act (FoIA), Politico stated ICO staffers have been initially saved at the hours of darkness and advised the commissioner was on an prolonged go away of absence, which it stated appeared considerably at odds with the workplace’s wider dedication to public transparency.

In a LinkedIn submit, Edwards stated he was “totally cooperating” with the investigation.

An info regulation specialist with 20 years of apply expertise, Edwards was named the UK’s new info commissioner by Westminster in August 2021, succeeding the outgoing Elizabeth Denham – whose time period in workplace had beforehand been prolonged through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hailing initially from New Zealand, Edwards beforehand served because the Kiwi privateness commissioner from 2014 to 2021, and was additionally chairman of the International Privateness Meeting from 2014 to 2017.

He took up the position because the work of the ICO turned more and more publicly seen after the introduction of the Common Knowledge Safety Regulation (GDPR) and because the sudden speedy digitisation of each day life led to by the pandemic threw information privateness points into stark reduction.

Extra lately, Edwards has overseen the workplace’s response to the expansion of synthetic intelligence (AI), final 12 months launching a method protecting areas akin to using automated decision-making (ADM) methods and using facial recognition by regulation enforcement, amongst different issues.

The ICO stated that in an effort to defend the events concerned and keep the integrity of the method, it was unable to supply any additional particulars on the matter at this stage.