ICO apologises to ex NatWest boss Rose over Farage scandal

The Information Commissioner's Office apologised to former NatWest chief executive Dame Alison Rose on Tuesday for falsely giving the impression that it was investigating her actions and involvement in the Nigel Farage scandal.

In a brief statement, the watchdog said: "The ICO's investigation was solely into NatWest's actions as a data controller.

"Our comments gave the impression that we had investigated the actions of Alison Rose, the former CEO of NatWest Group. This was incorrect. We confirm that we did not investigate Ms Rose's actions, given that NatWest was the data controller under investigation.

"We accept that it would have been appropriate in the specific circumstances for us to have given Ms Rose an opportunity to comment on any findings in relation to her role and regret not doing so."

The ICO apologised to Rose for suggesting that it had made a finding that she breached the UK GDPR in respect of Farage when it had not actually investigated her.

"Our investigation did not find that Ms Rose breached data protection law and we regret that our statement gave the impression that she did," it said.