A DPIA helps you identify and minimise the data protection risks of a project. A DPO is the person who advises, monitors compliance, and supports your organisation's UK GDPR obligations where appointment is required.
This guide turns the UK GDPR rules into practical decisions about when to do a DPIA, when to consult the ICO, when a DPO must be appointed, and what the DPO does. It is practical guidance, supporting implementation planning and should be validated against jurisdiction-specific legal, contractual, and policy requirements before implementation.
Structured answer sets in this page tree.
Cited legal and guidance references.
Use this page to decide whether a processing project needs a DPIA, whether the ICO must be consulted, and whether your organisation must appoint a DPO.
A DPIA is a process for identifying and minimising the data protection risks of a project. Under the UK GDPR, you must do one before processing that is likely to result in a high risk to individuals, including some specified types of processing such as systematic and extensive profiling with significant effects, large-scale processing of special category or criminal offence data, or systematic monitoring of a publicly accessible area on a large scale.
A DPO is an adviser and compliance monitor. The ICO says DPOs help you monitor internal compliance, inform and advise on your data protection obligations, and provide advice about DPIAs.
The controller owns the DPIA decision and is responsible for carrying it out. The DPO, where one is appointed, advises, monitors compliance, and supports the assessment but does not replace the controller's responsibility.
Evidence should show the project description, the risk screening, the DPIA findings, the mitigation steps, the DPO's advice where applicable, and any decision to consult the ICO. For DPO appointment, evidence should show why the organisation meets the appointment criteria and who the appointed DPO is.
Check whether the project uses new technology, profiling, special category data, criminal offence data, vulnerable individuals' data, or systematic monitoring. Those are all common DPIA triggers and may point to a high risk.
Check whether your organisation is a public authority or body, or whether its core activities involve regular and systematic monitoring on a large scale or large-scale special category or criminal offence processing. Those are the main DPO appointment triggers.
Start the DPIA while the project is still being designed. Describe what the processing does, why it is needed, what risks it creates, and what controls reduce those risks. If the remaining risk is still high, stop and consult the ICO before starting processing.
If you must appoint a DPO, publish the contact details and make sure the person has enough independence, support, and access to management to do the role properly.
This UK GDPR guide turns DPIAs And DPOs into owners, evidence requests, review checkpoints, and reusable operating records for implementation execution.
Turn DPIAs And DPOs into scoped questions, evidence fields, and review tasks.
Use Research Copilot to answer follow-up questions with cited source material.
Review scope, evidence, owners, and the next compliance actions with Sorena.
"Your DPIA must: describe the nature, scope, context and purposes of the processing; assess necessity, proportionality and compliance measures; identify and assess risks to individuals; and identify any additional measures to mitigate those risks."
"Your DPO must report to your highest level of management, operate independently, and have adequate resources to carry out their tasks."
"The controller shall consult the supervisory authority prior to processing where a data protection impact assessment under Article 35 indicates that the processing would result in a high risk in the absence of measures taken by the controller to mitigate the risk."