ICO issues apology to ex-NatWest boss over claims she broke privacy law

The watchdog said its comments gave the impression that it had investigated the actions, however this was incorrect and confirmed it did not investigate Rose’s actions, but instead explained it investigated NatWest as the data controller only.  

It does, however, accept it would have been “appropriate in the specific circumstances” for it to have given Rose an opportunity to comment on any of the findings in relation to her role and regret not doing so. 

Last month, the ICO originally suggested Rose had broken rules by confirming Farage had accounts with the private bank Coutts – and misleading a journalist over why it planned to close them. It did go on to add that it did not plan to take any action – given she had already resigned.  

Two days after this announcement, however, it said it would urgently look again at the findings after receiving a complaint from Rose.  

In its statement, the ICO said: “The ICO recently investigated a complaint from Nigel Farage. 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. 

“Finally, we apologise to Ms Rose for suggesting that we had made a finding that she breached the UK GDPR in respect of Mr Farage when we had not 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.”

A separate internal review from NatWest determined Coutts had a “contractual right” to shut Farage’s accounts, and had done so because the bank was losing money by keeping him as a client.