Does UK Data Protection Act 2018 — Automated Decision-Making require Human Oversight?

United Kingdom • enforcing

Yes — 1 provision

Requirements at a glance

This regulation imposes 7 specific requirements for Human Oversight across 1 provision:

Automated Decision-Making Rights (Articles 22A-22D UK GDPR) #

Obligation:
Human Oversight
enforcing
Effective:
Feb 5, 2026
Risk tier:
all
Scope:
deployers

Requirements

RequirementDetails
ADM definitionArt. 22A(1): a decision is based solely on automated processing where there is no meaningful human involvement; it is a significant decision where it produces a legal effect or a similarly significant effect for the data subject
Role of profilingArt. 22A(2): when assessing whether human involvement is meaningful, the extent to which the decision is reached by profiling must be considered — profiling is a factor in the test, not part of the definition
Special category restrictionArt. 22B(1)-(3): a significant decision based wholly or partly on Article 9(1) special category data may not be taken solely automatically unless the data subject gave explicit consent, or the decision is necessary for a contract or required by law and Article 9(2)(g) applies
Recognised legitimate interests barArt. 22B(4): a significant decision may not be taken solely automatically where the processing relies wholly or partly on Article 6(1)(ea)
Required safeguardsArt. 22C(1)-(2): where a significant decision is based on personal data and taken solely automatically, the controller must have safeguards that provide information about the decision, enable representations, enable human intervention on the controller's part, and enable the decision to be contested
Secretary of State powersArt. 22D: regulations may define when human involvement is or is not meaningful, what counts as a similarly significant effect, and may add to the Art. 22C safeguards, but may not amend Art. 22C; subject to the affirmative resolution procedure
Law-enforcement analogue out of scopeThe lettered ADM sections in the DPA 2018 itself — ss. 50A-50D (Part 3, law-enforcement processing) and s. 96 (Part 4, intelligence services) — are separate regimes and do not apply to the deployers covered here; s. 14 remains the Part 2 safeguard provision for decisions required or authorised by law

Penalties

ViolationFine
Non-complianceUp to GBP 17.5M or 4% global turnover
View full regulation View obligation Obligation matrix