The Information Commissioner's Office has established an in-house unit to cover 80 percent of its more standard cases, as it is more cost-effective than using an external organisation and helps with the continuity of investigations.
The team will ensure that when officers investigate how an organisation handles its data, relevant information is copied from the organisation's computers in a way that makes it admissible for use in court.
A spokesperson for the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) told GC News on Wednesday: "The team has received specialised training, primarily in the software but also in the procedures in the handling of court evidence." Data must be traceable back to an organisation's systems if it is to be admissible in court.
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Previously, the ICO had used fraud management and investigation company Focus to undertake such work. However, the ICO says its size limits its ability to keep up with all types of technology used by organisations, and has decided to retain Focus for the larger and more complex cases.
The ICO recently signed a £7m five-year IT services deal with Alfred McAlpine IT Services. The contract covers service desk support, network management, server management, desktop management, application management, hosting, disaster recovery and security management for about 280 staff across the ICO's six offices.
The contract, which replaces the ICO's previous 10-year agreement with Fujitsu, contains efficiency targets and allows for service improvements to be made in the future.
