Kent Police has been reprimanded over failures to respond to requests for personal information held by the force.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) says it has taken action against seven organisations who have failed to respond to Subject Access Requests (SAR) - made by individuals requesting personal information held about them.

The ICO - the UK's independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest - says an investigation found seven organisations, across the public and private sector, repeatedly failed to meet the three month deadline for responding to SAR requests.

From October 2020 to February 2021, Kent Police received over 200 SARs, with 60% completed during the statutory deadline, while it took the force more than 18 months to respond to some of the requests. As of May 2022, over 200 SARs remain overdue, and the ICO said a reprimand has been issued to the force.

Information Commissioner John Edwards said: “SARs and requests made under FOIA are fundamental rights and are an essential gateway to accessing other rights. Being able to ask an organisation 'what information do you hold on me?' and 'how it is being used?' provides transparency and accountability and allows the person to ask for changes to be made or even for the information to be deleted.”

The seven organisations were identified following a series of complaints in relation to multiple failures to respond to requests for copies of personal information

Other organisations reprimanded by the ICO include the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Home Office, the London Boroughs of Croydon, Hackney and Lambeth, and Virgin Media.

Mr Edwards added: "We will continue to support organisations to meet their obligations to individuals. In addition to providing education to people about their rights.

"This includes developing a SAR generator to help people identify where their personal information is likely to be held and how to request it, at the same time as providing information to the organisation regarding what is required from them.

“We expect all information requests to be handled appropriately and in a timely way. This encourages public trust and confidence and ensures organisations stay on the right side of the law.”

A SAR is a request made by or on behalf of an individual for the information which they are entitled to ask for under Article 15 of the UK GDPR.

The number of requests such organisations are having to deal with is on the increase.

Kent Police said there were 624 SAR requests in 2019, 774 requests in 2020 and 1018 in 2021.

Figures to date suggest there are around 1300 requests for this year already.

Kent Police said it is committed to its responsibilities under the Data Protection Act and would increase the number of staff handling such requests to ensure they are dealt with in a "timely way".

A spokesman for the force said: "Recognising this as an area of business that needed improvement Kent Police requested that the ICO include a review of this area of business as part of the consensual audit which will be undertaken in early October 2022.

"Following a significant increase in the number of SAR requests between 2019 and 2021, the force had already drawn up a comprehensive improvement plan which was ratified by chief officers and will include looking at ways to respond to requests in a more timely fashion.

"This will include streamlining current processes to improve response times and an increase in staff who deal with SAR requests."