Lee Cruickshank v The Information Commissioner
[2024] UKFTT 730 (GRC)
Patrick Wainwright v The Information Commissioner
28 March 2024
[2024] UKFTT 262 (GRC)
First-tier Tribunal
Someone complained to the Information Commissioner about a company breaking data protection rules. The Commissioner investigated and decided not to take further action. The complainant went to court to challenge this decision. The court said it couldn't change the Commissioner's decision and threw out the case, stating that this type of challenge is a separate legal process.
Key Facts
- •Mr. Patrick Wainwright applied to the First-tier Tribunal under section 166 of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA 1998) against the Information Commissioner.
- •The Information Commissioner applied to strike out the application.
- •The application concerned the Commissioner's handling of Wainwright's complaint about a data controller's alleged breach of data protection legislation.
- •The Commissioner's decision not to take further action was communicated to Wainwright on 3 May 2023.
- •Wainwright argued that the Commissioner's investigation was flawed and that the outcome was perverse.
Legal Principles
Section 166 DPA 1998 does not provide a mechanism to challenge the substantive outcome of a complaint against the Information Commissioner.
Killock & Veale & others v Information Commissioner [2021] UKUT 299 (AAC) and R (on the application of Delo) v Information Commissioner and Wise Payments Ltd [2022] EWHC 3046 (Admin)
Challenges to the lawfulness or rationality of the Information Commissioner's process are matters for judicial review, not the First-tier Tribunal.
Killock & Veale & ors v Information Commissioner [2021]UKUT 299 (AAC) and R (on the application of Delo) v Information Commissioner and Wise Payments Limited [2022] EWHC 3046 (Admin)
The Tribunal has no power to retrospectively order the Commissioner to take steps that would lead to a different outcome of a complaint.
Killock & Veale & ors v Information Commissioner [2021]UKUT 299 (AAC) and R (on the application of Delo) v Information Commissioner and Wise Payments Limited [2022] EWHC 3046 (Admin)
Outcomes
The application was struck out.
The Tribunal lacked the power to review the merits of the Commissioner's decision or to order the Commissioner to take further action that would alter the outcome. The applicant's arguments amounted to a challenge to the substantive outcome of the complaint, which is a matter for judicial review, not the Tribunal.