ICO manages staff changes with new collective leadership model

The Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, has announced that due to recent and imminent staff changes in his staff, he will be assisted by a Senior Management Team of 12 colleagues. This replaces the smaller Executive Team, currently two Deputy Commissioners and a Deputy Chief Executive.

The change is due to Deputy Information Commissioner, David Smith, retiring this month after 25 years’ service at the ICO, and Deputy Commissioner, Graham Smith, having taken up the position of Adviser to the European Ombudsman based in Strasbourg. In addition, Christopher Graham’s term finishes towards the end of June 2016.

Graham said that the new leadership system marks a move towards a more collective model of leadership at the ICO. He writes in the ICO blog: ‘Replacing these two experienced colleagues would have been a challenge in any event, but it has been complicated by the delay in concluding the Triennial Review, launched a year ago at the initiative of the Cabinet Office. I am confident that the report on the ICO will be published in due course. But one of the matters under consideration in that Review was Lord Justice Leveson’s recommendation that the Information Commissioner should no longer be constituted as a ‘corporation sole’. Under the circumstances, I felt I could not simply replace the two Smiths with like for like appointments.’

The Ministry of Justice’s consultation on the Triennial review of the Information Commissioner's Office closed on 16 January.