ICO apologises to former NatWest boss Alison Rose over Farage inquiry

The UK knowledge watchdog has apologised to former NatWest head Dame Alison Rose for suggesting she breached privateness legal guidelines following a probe into the closure of Nigel Farage’s checking account.

Dame Alison resigned in July after admitting she had made a mistake in talking about Mr Farage’s account.

The Data Commissioner’s Workplace stated its feedback final month urged it had been investigating Dame Alison.

Nonetheless, it stated its probe was into NatWest’s actions as a knowledge controller.

“Our feedback seemed that we had investigated the actions of Alison Rose, the previous CEO of NatWest Group. This was incorrect,” the ICO stated.

“We verify that we didn’t examine Ms Rose’s actions, on condition that NatWest was the info controller beneath investigation.”

Mr Farage, a outstanding Brexiteer, stated earlier this 12 months that Coutts, the distinguished non-public financial institution for the rich and owned by NatWest, deliberate to close down his account and that he had not been given a purpose.

In July, it was reported that his account was being closed as a result of he not met the wealth threshold for Coutts, citing a supply conversant in the matter.

Nonetheless, Mr Farage later obtained a report from the financial institution which indicated his political beliefs had been additionally thought-about.

The fallout led to Dame Alison resigning as NatWest’s chief government after admitting she had made a mistake in talking about Mr Farage’s relationship with the financial institution.

Mr Farage stated in July he was submitting a criticism with the ICO.

In its newest assertion the ICO stated: “We settle for that it will have been applicable within the particular circumstances for us to have given Ms Rose a possibility to touch upon any findings in relation to her function and remorse not doing so.

“We apologise to Ms Rose for suggesting that we had made a discovering that she breached the UK GDPR in respect of Mr Farage after we had not investigated her.

“Our investigation didn’t discover that Ms Rose breached knowledge safety regulation and we remorse that our assertion seemed that she did.”