Section 178 — Data Protection Act 2018: Review of processing of personal data for the purposes of journalism

Review of processing of personal data for the purposes of journalism 178 1 The Commissioner must—

a review the extent to which, during each review period, the processing of personal data for the purposes of journalism complied with—

i the data protection legislation, and ii good practice in the processing of personal data for the purposes of journalism, b prepare a report of the review, and c submit the report to the Secretary of State.

2 In this section— “ good practice in the processing of personal data for the purposes of journalism ” has the same meaning as in section 124; “ review period ” means— the period of 4 years beginning with the day on which Chapter 2 of Part 2 of this Act comes into force, and each subsequent period of 5 years beginning with the day after the day on which the previous review period ended.

3 The Commissioner must start a review under this section, in respect of a review period, within the period of 6 months beginning when the review period ends.

4 The Commissioner must submit the report of a review under this section to the Secretary of State—

a in the case of the first review, before the end of the period of 18 months beginning when the Commissioner started the review, and b in the case of each subsequent review, before the end of the period of 12 months beginning when the Commissioner started the review.

5 The report must include consideration of the extent of compliance (as described in subsection (1)(a)) in each part of the United Kingdom.

6 The Secretary of State must—

a lay the report before Parliament, and b send a copy of the report to—

i the Scottish Ministers, ii the Welsh Ministers, and iii the Executive Office in Northern Ireland.

7 Schedule 17 makes further provision for the purposes of a review under this section.