The UK’s data watchdog, the Information Commissioner Information (ICO), has apologised to former NatWest chief executive Alison Rose for suggesting that she personally breached data rules in the “debanking” scandal involving Nigel Farage.

“The ICO recently investigated a complaint from Nigel Farage,” said the watchdog.

“The ICO’s investigation was solely into NatWest’s actions as a data controller.

“Our comments gave the impression that we had investigated the actions of Alison Rose, the former CEO of NatWest Group.

“This was incorrect. We confirm that we did not investigate Ms Rose’s actions, given that NatWest was the data controller under investigation.

“We accept that it would have been appropriate in the specific circumstances for us to have given Ms Rose an opportunity to comment on any findings in relation to her role and regret not doing so.

“Finally, we apologise to Ms Rose for suggesting that we had made a finding that she breached the UK GDPR in respect of Mr Farage when we had not investigated her.

“Our investigation did not find that Ms Rose breached data protection law and we regret that our statement gave the impression that she did.”