DPO Essentials
Included support time 2 hours per month
- Appointed DPO
Outsourced DPO as a Service
A fixed-price, named outsourced data protection officer service that meets your UK and EU GDPR requirements, backed by a wider specialist privacy team
Trusted by 7600+ organisations worldwide
Trusted by teams including
24,000+ privacy projects delivered across 7,600 organisations worldwide
In plain terms
What is DPO as a Service?
A named, qualified data protection officer to guide your data protection strategy, without the cost of a full-time hire. They will advise your team, monitor compliance, support DPIAs (data protection impact assessments) and act as your contact for the ICO (Information Commission’s Office) and data subjects. Under the UK GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and DPA (Data Protection Act) 2018, appointing a DPO is mandatory for many public authorities and highly recommended for businesses looking to maintain strong data governance. Not appointing or properly resourcing a required DPO is a breach of the UK GDPR and risks heavy fines.
Benefits of outsourcing your data protection officer
Cost efficiency
Avoid the salary and overheads of a full-time hire.
True independence
No conflicts of interest – your DPO is not embedded in another department.
Expert on demand
Get highly experienced advice, quickly. We pride ourselves on maintaining fast SLAs (service level agreements).
Choose the right level of support
Compare our DPO services below to find the right fit. We offer three service levels depending on whether you simply need to meet the regulatory requirement or want support with any aspect of privacy. Our new DPO Flex packages allow you to scale up support as your business evolves, drawing on a broad range of privacy specialisms without the cost of recruiting.
Bespoke packages are available on request for complex or larger businesses.
DPO Flex
Included support time 3–7.5 hours per month
- Appointed DPO
- Privacy consultancy
- DSAR support
- Contract and legal services
- Platform assurance
- AI support
DPO Flex Plus
Included support time 1–2 days per month
- Appointed DPO
- Privacy consultancy
- DSAR support
- Contract and legal services
- Platform assurance
- AI support
Why choose GRC Solutions?
A complete GRC team behind you. Your named DPO is backed by data protection, cyber security, legal and training specialists, giving you one trusted partner as your needs evolve.
We build long-term partnerships. We support more than 80 DPO clients and our privacy services have a renewal rate of over 90%.
Highly skilled experts. Our privacy team has delivered over 24,000 privacy projects across 7,600 organisations worldwide.
What our customers say
[Our DPO], and the wider [GRC Solutions] team, got to understand our business, some of the complexities we face, very quickly and are now embedded in our compliance process."
We have managed to solve 100% of data privacy issues with GRC Solutions."
"GRC has been a trusted partner of ours for over a decade. They are a great company to work with, consistently putting their clients’ needs first and delivering on their promises - something that is all too rare these days."
Works well alongside
These services complement building a strong foundation for data security across your business and fulfilling your data governance obligations globally.
EU and UK representative services
We act as your local point of contact for data protection enquiries and communications from individuals and supervisory authorities.
Learn more about EU and UK representative servicesData seeding
Get ongoing visibility of how your data is handled, using synthetic data to monitor use and prove ownership.
Learn more about Data seedingAuditing
Privacy audits that identify compliance gaps, reduce regulatory risk and strengthen accountability across your organisation and supply chain.
Learn more about Auditing
Outsourced DPO services that feel like part of your team
A flexible, cost-effective way to fulfil your obligations while benefiting from a highly experienced, named individual who gets to know your business and liaises with the ICO on your behalf.
An ideal solution for organisations where cost, complexity or conflicts of interest rule out an internal appointment.
DPO as a Service FAQs
Under the UK GDPR and EU GDPR, certain organisations must appoint a DPO (data protection officer). This includes public authorities and organisations whose core activities involve large-scale processing of sensitive personal data or large-scale, regular and systematic monitoring of individuals. Even if you’re not legally required to appoint a DPO, having access to expert privacy advice can help strengthen your data protection compliance and governance.
Yes. Both the UK GDPR and EU GDPR allow organisations to appoint an external DPO under a service contract. Our DPO as a Service gives you access to experienced privacy professionals without the cost of recruiting a full-time employee, providing independent advice and ongoing support tailored to your organisation’s needs.
A virtual DPO provides the expertise and support of a DPO remotely, without requiring a full-time, in-house appointment. Through our DPO as a Service, you can access expert guidance, compliance monitoring and ongoing privacy support tailored to your requirements.
A conflict of interest can arise when an internal DPO is also responsible for making decisions about how personal data is processed. For example, senior IT, HR or operational leaders may determine the purposes and means of processing that they would then need to independently monitor as DPO. An external DPO can help avoid these conflicts by providing independent oversight and objective advice.
We maintain strict SLAs to ensure you get fast responses when you need them most. You’ll receive an initial response to a privacy breach within two business hours. Where a breach is likely to be notifiable to a supervisory authority, we’ll draft a notification for your consideration within one business day.