Personal Data Protection Act 2010 · Updated to 15 Sep 2026 · Part III · Exemption
45. Exemption
Feedback & supportThere shall be exempted from the provisions of this Act personal data processed by an individual only for the purposes of that individual’s personal, family or household affairs, including recreational purposes.
this Act
“this Act” includes regulations, orders, notifications and other subsidiary legislation made under this Act;
Subject to section 46, personal data—
personal data
“personal data” means any information in respect of commercial transactions, which— (a) is being processed wholly or partly by means of equipment operating automatically in response to instructions given for that purpose; (b) is recorded with the intention that it should wholly or partly be processed by means of such equipment; or (c) is recorded as part of a relevant filing system or with the intention that it should form part of a relevant filing system, that relates directly or indirectly to a data subject, who is identified or identifiable from that information or from that and other information in the possession of a data user, including any sensitive personal data and expression of opinion about the data subject; but does not include any information that is processed for the purpose of a credit reporting business carried on by a credit reporting agency under the Credit Reporting Agencies Act 2010;
processed for—
the prevention or detection of crime or for the purpose of investigations;
the apprehension or prosecution of offenders; or
the assessment or collection of any tax or duty or any other imposition of a similar nature, shall be exempted from the General Principle, Notice and Choice Principle, Disclosure Principle and Access
Principle and other related provisions of this Act;
processed in relation to information of the physical or mental health of a data subject shall be exempted from the Access Principle and other related provisions of this
Act of which the application of the provisions to the data subject would be likely to cause serious harm to the physical or mental health of the data subject or any other individual;
processed for preparing statistics or carrying out research shall be exempted from the General Principle, Notice and Choice Principle, Disclosure Principle and Access
Principle and other related provisions of this Act, provided that such personal data is not processed for any other purpose and that the resulting statistics or the results of the research are not made available in a form which identifies the data subject;
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that is necessary for the purpose of or in connection with any order or judgement of a court shall be exempted from the General Principle, Notice and Choice Principle,
Disclosure Principle and Access Principle and other related provisions of this Act;
processed for the purpose of discharging regulatory functions shall be exempted from the General Principle,
Notice and Choice Principle, Disclosure Principle and
Access Principle and other related provisions of this Act if the application of those provisions to the personal data would be likely to prejudice the proper discharge of those functions; or
processed only for journalistic, literary or artistic purposes shall be exempted from the General Principle, Notice and Choice Principle, Disclosure Principle, Retention
Principle, Data Integrity Principle and Access Principle and other related provisions of this Act, provided that—
the processing is undertaken with a view to the publication by any person of the journalistic, literary or artistic material;
the data controller reasonably believes that, taking into account the special importance of public interest in freedom of expression, the publication would be in the public interest; and
the data controller reasonably believes that in all the circumstances, compliance with the provision in respect of which the exemption is claimed is incompatible with the journalistic, literary or artistic purposes.