June 3, 2019

Applications for the ICO Sandbox have now closed and the ICO says that it has had a “fantastic response”, with 64 submissions received in total.

The ICO says that organisations have clearly put a good deal of thought into how they want to work with the ICO to help ensure that their innovative projects using personal information can comply with data protection law.

Initial analysis suggests that there are many high quality, viable applications. There was also an interesting spread of applicants from different sectors and of varying size.

The sandbox team will now carry out an initial triage sift process of each application, scoring them against its selection criteria, before creating a short list. This will then go before an internal assessment panel for final decisions.

The ICO anticipates around ten projects will be chosen for the initial beta phase of the sandbox, although this may vary slightly depending on the nature of the successful applications.

It is anticipated that successful applicants will be informed in July, when the team will work with them to draw up detailed plans for their journey through the sandbox. To read the ICO’s blog post in full, click here.