Written answer
Departmental Data
588. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the number of subject access requests received by his Department relating to immigration and international protection matters in each of the years from 2020 to 2025 and to date in 2026; the number completed within the statutory one-month timeframe; the number for which an extension was applied; the average processing time for completed requests, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49234/26]
Comment on this
My Department is committed to protecting the rights and privacy of all individuals in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation, 2016/679 (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. Accordingly, my Department fully complies with Data Subject Access Requests (SARs).
Within the Department, securing and managing personal data in accordance with GDPR principles is a priority and is governed by a comprehensive set of policies, procedures and systems.
A Data Protection and Records Management Steering Group incudes senior personnel from across the Department to assist the Management Board and the Data Protection Officer in fulfilling their Data Protection responsibilities.
The Department also has a network of data stewards in place that champion data protection awareness in each business unit and work with our Data Protection Support and Compliance Office to ensure the timely processing of all SARs.
Please note that the Department tracks SARs by statutory deadline compliance and extensions applied and not by average processing times, therefore the requested data is unavailable.
The figures for Subject Access Requests for immigration and International Protection related cases recorded by my Department in each of the years 2020 to 2025 and to 25 June 2026, are provided in the table below. These numbers are distinguished by number completed within the 30-day time limit and the number where extensions were applied for.
*Please note that not all SARs are completed, some may be withdrawn, refused or closed due to insufficient information with no contact from the data subject after requesting clarification.