ConsumerWise resource
ICO guidance index
The Information Commissioner’s Office publishes separate guidance for the public, organisations and public authorities. This index groups the ICO material most useful for ConsumerWise disputes so you can move from a plain-English guide to the underlying official position without hunting across the ICO website.
Subject access requests
- A guide to subject access - for organisations
- Getting copies of your information - for the public
- Time limits for data-protection rights requests
Use these pages for scope, identity checks, clarification, response timing, searches, redaction and what information a SAR response should contain. Remember that a SAR is a right to personal data, not automatically a right to unredacted copies of every original document.
Accuracy and rectification
- Accuracy principle - organisation guidance
- Right to get data corrected - public guidance
- Right to restrict processing
These are central where a dispute concerns an incorrect date, balance, status, identity, credit-file entry or other factual record. A disagreement with an opinion is not automatically an accuracy breach, but a factual assertion should be supportable.
Erasure, restriction and objection
These rights have different legal tests. “Delete my data” is not a universal remedy for a disputed record. Restriction can be particularly relevant while accuracy is being contested.
Making a data-protection complaint
- How to make a data-protection complaint
- How organisations should deal with data-protection complaints
Following the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 changes, organisations have express duties around handling data-protection complaints. Keep a rights request and a complaint analytically separate: a SAR asks for access; a complaint alleges that the organisation handled personal data or a rights request improperly.
Credit information
This is a useful starting point for credit reference agencies, searches, defaults and correcting credit-file information. For ConsumerWise’s deeper treatment, use the Credit Reporting hub alongside the relevant sector guide.
FOI and environmental information
FOI/EIR are public-information regimes, not substitutes for a SAR. Which regime to use depends on whether you want your own personal data, recorded public information generally, or environmental information.
Data (Use and Access) Act 2025
The DUAA changed parts of the UK data-protection framework during 2025-26. ConsumerWise’s DUAA guide explains the consumer-facing changes and links them back to the updated ICO material.
How ConsumerWise uses ICO guidance
ICO guidance is authoritative regulatory guidance but is not itself identical to legislation or a court judgment. ConsumerWise identifies the legal right first, then uses ICO guidance to explain how the regulator interprets and expects that right to operate in practice. See Source hierarchy for the editorial method.