The Data Protection Act 1998 requires businesses to register for data protection and to keep their registration entry up to date. All businesses would be well advised to check that their registrations are still current as there are trends and developments in best practice, for example including "Trading in personal data" if the registrant is one of a group of companies.

Data processing activities also change and may mean that registration entries become out of date, for example there is a category of recipient of personal information named "Data processors". A few years ago this would have been relevant to only a few companies and certainly not for every registered purpose. Generally HR activities are most likely to be outsourced and registrations would show data processors as a recipient of information processed for employee, agent and contractor administration. However current practice is to outsource many more activities and some businesses would be well advised to register data processors as a recipient of information processed for all registered purposes.

Recently a number of clients have requested audits of their registrations and it is surprising how many other details need amendment such as trading styles. The registration of a trading style is useful to help anyone searching the data protection register to find your business registration. A tip for checking your own business registration is to compare it with the registrations of others in your industry or with the online registration templates on the Information Commissioner’s website.

A final tip, for those who search the register, use the postcode to locate hard to find registrations.

Mandy Webster

25 March 2008