What is a Supervisory Authority?

An individual authority established by its member state to supervise the compliance with a specific regulation. In regards to GDPR, each country will have its own authority, for the UK the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) will be the Supervisory Authority.

How will the Supervisory Authorities be involved with the GDPR?

The ICO have already been busy in their role as Supervisory Authority. They will be involved in the following ways:

• Helping organisations in their activities to becoming compliant with the new regulations as well as educating individuals about their rights. You can visit their GDPR hub on their website.
• Enforcing the new regulations after the May 2018 deadline including punishing those companies who fail to comply.
• Handle disputes between organisations and individuals relating to subject access requests.