O and the ICO didn't uphold my complaint. Their response was:
Dear Miss Wade,
Thank you for your data protection complaint regarding the accuracy of information held by Money, Debt and Credit.
Complaints to the Information Commissioner’s Office
Under the Data Protection Act 1998 (the DPA), those who collect and use personal information have to follow rules of good practice for handling information (called the data protection principles). The DPA also gives rights to individuals whose information is collected and used.
When we receive a data protection complaint, we will make an assessment. This is our view about whether an organisation has followed the rules of good practice properly. We do this by saying whether we think it is likely or unlikely that the organisation has complied with the DPA.
We will also give advice about handling personal information and will ask the organisation to review its actions if we think things have gone wrong. Our main concern is to ensure that organisations deal with personal information properly in the future.
Assessments can help us decide whether we should take action against a particular organisation. If an organisation refuses to take its responsibilities under the DPA seriously, then we may consider formal action to ensure it complies with the law.
Your complaint to us
In your case, the matters you have raised that are relevant to the DPA relate to the fourth data protection principle which provides
“Personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to
date.”
You are concerned Money, Debt and Credit have failed to update your IVA records with the Insolvency Register thereby contravening the DPA.
Our assessment decision
We initially wrote to Money, Debt and Credit regarding the issues you have raised however they informed us your case was one of a number which was sold to Grant Thornton. Having therefore written to Grant Thornton and received their response, I am in a position to make our assessment. On the basis of all of the information provided by you and Grant Thornton, we have decided that it is likely that they have complied with the requirements of the DPA in this case.
We understand in July 2007, you entered into an IVA with Money, Debt and Credit (MDC) with the account then being sold to Grant Thornton in July 2013. Despite MDC providing a certificate of completion, your account remain opened due to an unresolved issue regarding the refund of VAT from HMRC and the possibility that this may result in a further refund being owed to your creditors. We believe the completion of the IVA was also delayed by a requirement under the agreed terms and conditions of the IVA to investigate and realise any claims for mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance and to pay your creditors accordingly from any money recovered.
Grant Thornton has explained once both issues were resolved, the IVA was completed. We believe this was done on 29 November and the relevant parties including yourself, the Insolvency Registrar, the Court and your creditors were informed of the closure of the IVA on the same day.
As it would appear Grant Thornton were unable to update the Insolvency Register due to circumstances beyond their control, informed you of the delays preventing the same and then updated the register as soon as they were able to, we believe it is likely they have met their obligations under the DPA.
As we have now made our assessment, we consider the matter to be closed. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.