KINGSTON, Jamaica — Difficulty finding a willing and qualified retired high court judge has delayed the work of the Data Protection Oversight Committee.

This was revealed by the Minister of Science, Technology and Special Projects, Dr Andrew Wheatley, during his June 3 contribution to the Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives. He also provided an update on delays to the work of the Office of Information Commissioner (OIC), despite the Data Protection Act being passed since 2020.

Regarding the Oversight Committee, Wheatley told the Parliament that the members have been selected and the approval process is in its final stages.
“I will be candid about the delays. The legislation requires that the Committee include a retired High Court Justice — a well-intentioned provision that in practice created a significant bottleneck. Finding a willing and qualified retired Justice proved far more difficult than the law assumes, and I want to signal to this House that this warrants legislative review. The current formulation places the timeliness of a critical governance appointment at the mercy of a very small pool of eligible candidates”.

Wheatley described the Data Protection Act as “one of the most important pieces of legislation this Government has placed on the books” He noted that it established the framework for how personal data in Jamaica is collected, used, and protected. “It created the Office of the Information Commissioner as our national data protection regulator. It is a law we should be proud of,” he said.

But, Wheatley was forced once more to be “direct” with the Parliament. He acknowledged that, five years after the passage of the legislation, the enforcement provisions have still not been fully activated — “the very provisions designed to hold data controllers accountable and protect every Jamaican whose personal information is collected and processed”.

He said, “We have the law. What we have not yet done is fully enforce it. There is a structural reason for this. The OIC was established with an interim organisational structure that was not adequate for the full scope of its regulatory mandate — functional areas unprovided for, staffing below the required level and key officers without the specialised technical training that compliance oversight demands”.

Wheatley said the OIC has worked with what it has, building the framework and running a growing public awareness programme. “But awareness without enforcement is not regulation. It is education,” he stated. He said the Government has responded to the OIC and its full requested budget for the current financial year has been approved.

“That approval unlocks the resources the Office needs to begin the restructuring work that has been long overdue. In addition, an OIC Data Protection Working Group has been formally constituted and mandated — bringing together the technical expertise, legal knowledge, and operational capacity required to guide the restructuring of the Office and to accelerate its readiness for full enforcement. That work is underway now,” said Wheatley.

He told the House that with the budget secured, the Working Group active, and the Oversight Committee appointment in its final stages, the OIC is now on a clear path to becoming what it was always designed to be — “a fully functioning, technically capable, enforcement-ready national data protection authority”.

“And when that authority is in place, the enforcement provisions of the Data Protection Act will be activated. Data controllers will register, comply, and be held accountable. Jamaicans who trust organisations with their personal data have a right to expect that trust to be protected — not just in law, but in practice,” Wheatley added.

— Lynford Simpson