Alan Hudson v The Information Commissioner

Facts

The applicant, Alan Hudson, complained to the Information Commissioner (now the Information Commission) on 28 January 2026 about the Football Association's handling of his data subject access request. The FA's position was that its records were historic and unstructured and so fell outside the request; the applicant said no reasonable search had been made. Through his representative, he applied to the First-tier Tribunal on form GRC3 dated 2 August 2026 under section 166(2) of the Data Protection Act 2018, seeking an order that the Commission report on progress, confirm allocation to a case officer and the steps taken, and take such further steps as the Tribunal considered appropriate. He did not ask the Tribunal to decide the merits. On 27 August 2026 the Commission's case officer gave an outcome: it could not determine whether there had been an infringement, but it had asked the FA to provide an additional response within one month, and no further action would be taken. A review on 18 September 2026 upheld that outcome. The Commission applied on form GRC5 dated 2 September 2026 to strike out the application for want of jurisdiction and for want of reasonable prospect of success. The applicant opposed, arguing that a procedural step remained, namely for the Commission to consider the FA's further response, which the FA provided on 29 September 2026 maintaining its position.