Jonathan Bamford

Head of Strategic Liaison, Information Commissioner’s Office

Jonathan Bamford joined the staff of the Data Protection Registrar when the office was first established in early 1985. He has remained through the transition to Information Commissioner with the introduction of the Data Protection Act 1998 and Freedom of Information Act 2000. The Information Commissioner enforces this and associated legislation in the UK.

He has performed a variety of compliance and policy roles over the years ranging from enforcement and giving evidence in legal proceedings through to representing the ICO internationally and leading on policy development initiatives. These include the first ICO code of practice, original ICO audit manual, the first ICO Privacy Impact Assessment handbook and initiating the ICO’s ‘privacy by design’ work.

Jonathan is a member of the ICO’s senior management team and is responsible for the ICO’s engagement with its significant stakeholders across all sectors including civil society. His work centres upon many of the major information rights issues of the day such as state access to communications data and the practical effects of EU data protection reforms on organisations.