Sections 173 to 175 of the Coroners and Justice Act has been brought into force as of 1 February. This gives the Information Commissioner – the data protection regulator in the UK – the right to inspect premises and require other co-operation (initially of public authorities, but the categories may be extended later) – to assess whether the data controller (usually the organisation being inspected) is complying with the Data Protection Act. The changes also make other changes of a framework nature initially, including requiring the Commissioner to create new codes of practice, such as to cover the sharing of personal data.
This is part of a trend to beef up data protection law and increase the teeth given to inspect and prosecute for data breaches.