Part 5: The Information Commissioner Section 137: Charges payable to the Commissioner by controllers
This section provides the Secretary of State with a power to make regulations requiring data controllers to pay a charge to the Commissioner. Those regulations may provide for different charges in different cases and for a discounted charge. In setting the charge the Secretary of State will take into account the desirability of offsetting the amount needed to fund the Commissioner’s data protection and privacy and electronic communications regulatory functions. It also provides that the Secretary of State may make regulations requiring a controller to provide information to the Commissioner to help the Commissioner identify the correct charge.
	This and the following section reproduces the substance of the charging powers inserted into the 1998 Act by sections 108 to 110 of the Digital Economy Act 2017. These powers were originally legislated for ahead of this Act to allow the new charges to be in place in time of the GDPR coming into force in May 2018. In particular, the Data Protection (Charges and Information) Regulations 2018 (S.I. 2018/480) were made using the powers conferred by the Digital Economy Act 2017 on 11 April 2018 and will come into force on 25 May 2018. Paragraph 26 of Schedule 20 to this Act makes transitional provision.