Many will be aware that there has been a recent “independent workplace investigation” into the conduct of John Edwards, Information Commissioner.
A few days after news was announced that the initial investigation had revealed he had a “case to answer” Mr Edwards has announced on LinkedIn that he has resigned, both as current Commissioner and as incoming Chair of the new Information Commission.
Details as to what the impugned conduct was are sparse, but he refers to “poor judgement” and “attempts at humour that were inappropriate and caused offence”.
As a matter of law, the Commissioner doesn’t simply resign: paragraph 3(1) of schedule 12 of the Data Protection Act 2018 requires him to request to the King that he be relieved of his office. One wonders if this has already been done: if not, although the ultimate outcome is of course inevitable, is it maybe a bit presumptuous?
Needless to say, this is all unprecedented. And it presents the government with a headache: they will have been hoping for a smooth and largely unnoticed transition from the old model of Commissioner as Crown appointee and corporation sole to a modern regulatory Information Commission, with Edwards as Chair. Now, those transition arrangements have no doubt been made much more complicated (at the least), and there will need to be an exercise to recruit and appoint a new Chair.
The views in this post (and indeed most posts on blog) are my personal ones, and do not represent the views of any organisation I am involved with.
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