What is included

The contents depend on what you are covering: the data protection law, industry requirements or internal order. Usually it comes to 10 to 15 documents.

Discuss the scope

Security policy

The top level document: what we protect, from what and who is responsible.

Orders and appointments

The person responsible for data processing, the committee, the list of authorised staff.

Access regulation

Who gets which rights, how they are granted and how they are revoked on termination.

Procedures

How to work with media, passwords and remote access, and how to respond to incidents.

Staff instructions

Short and clear, rather than thirty pages nobody reads.

Logs and forms

Media registers, records of data subject requests, briefing records. Exactly what is asked for during an inspection.

How the work runs

The main thing is that what is written can actually be followed. A document that contradicts the working process will be broken in the first week.

01

Process survey

We look at how the work is really organised: who grants access, what happens when somebody leaves, where the passwords are kept.

02

Development

We prepare the set and agree wording the company will actually be able to follow.

03

Rollout

Approval, staff acknowledgement by signature, a briefing.

04

Updating

Reviewed once a year: systems, departments and responsible people change.

A gap between the documents and the practice is the main cause of enforcement notices. The policy says data is kept for a year, while the database holds enquiries from five years ago. Formally that is a breach, and there is nothing to argue with.

Frequently asked questions

You can download one, but it describes somebody else processes. An inspection does not ask whether a document exists but how it is followed: show us the log, the appointment order, the acknowledgement signatures. That is where a generic set falls apart.

For a company of up to 100 people, usually 10 to 15. Inflating the set is harmful: the more documents there are, the greater the chance that one of them contradicts the others or is not followed.

The policy and the orders are signed by the head of the company. Procedures can be approved by the person responsible for security. Staff acknowledge them by signature, and those sheets are kept, because they get requested.

We will prepare the document set

Tell us what you are covering: the data protection law, a client requirement or internal order. We will propose the contents and the timescale.