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Section 165: Complaints by data subjects

Data Protection Act 2018 · 2018 c. 12View on legislation.gov.uk

Part 6: Enforcement

Articles 57(1)(f) and (2) and 77 of the UK GDPR (data subject's right to lodge a complaint) confer rights on data subjects to complain to the Commissioner if the data subject considers that, in connection with personal data relating to him or her, there is an infringement of the UK GDPR.

A data subject may make a complaint to the Commissioner if the data subject considers that, in connection with personal data relating to him or her, there is an infringement of Part 3 or 4 of this Act.

The Commissioner must facilitate the making of complaints under subsection (2) by taking steps such as providing a complaint form which can be completed electronically and by other means.

If the Commissioner receives a complaint under subsection (2), the Commissioner must—

take appropriate steps to respond to the complaint,
inform the complainant of the outcome of the complaint,
inform the complainant of the rights under section 166, and
if asked to do so by the complainant, provide the complainant with further information about how to pursue the complaint.

The reference in subsection (4)(a) to taking appropriate steps in response to a complaint includes—

investigating the subject matter of the complaint, to the extent appropriate, and
informing the complainant about progress on the complaint, including about whether further investigation or co-ordination with a foreign designated authority is necessary.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

In this section—

  • "foreign designated authority" means an authority designated for the purposes of Article 13 of the Data Protection Convention by a party, other than the United Kingdom, which is bound by that Convention;

  • ...

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.