Advisory & Data Protection
A qualified, independent Data Protection Officer without the hire — regulator contact, DSAR and breach guidance, and quarterly reporting to your board.
Some organisations are legally required to appoint a Data Protection Officer; all of them must be able to demonstrate compliance. But hiring, training and retaining a good DPO is expensive, and internal appointments often create the very conflict of interest the role is meant to avoid. Blackfoot's outsourced DPO service solves both problems: an experienced, independent Data Protection Officer, engaged as a service.
Your Blackfoot DPO acts as the primary contact for regulators and individuals — including your own employees — on data protection matters, monitors your compliance position, and reports on commitments and risks to senior leadership through quarterly updates. Advice and guidance work like an internal resource: a central point for every data protection question your business generates.
Every engagement begins with a GDPR Compliance Check: a structured review of your organisation, documentation and practices, delivered as a report with prioritised recommendations. From there, business-as-usual support covers reviewing DPIAs, your ROPA, privacy notices and data protection policies; guidance on data subject access requests — validity, timelines, exemptions and what you must provide; breach notification support including acting as the contact point with the regulator; and registration with the regulator as your point of contact.
The boundaries are honest and deliberate: your eDPO advises, reviews and fronts regulator communication, but doesn't execute your DSAR responses or manage breaches for you — that operational independence is what makes the DPO role credible under the GDPR, and it keeps accountability where the law puts it.
Compared with an internal hire, the case is straightforward: no recruitment, training or continuing-development burden, no key-person risk when someone leaves, access to Blackfoot's wider multi-sector expertise, and a consistent, independent view of your position reported to the board every quarter. The service scales to your use case and processing profile, so you pay for the expertise you need rather than a full-time salary.
An external DPO removes the perceived or actual conflicts of interest that internal appointments often create — a core GDPR expectation for the role.
Every engagement starts with a structured compliance review and report, so your DPO's advice is grounded in your actual position.
Your eDPO registers with the regulator as your point of contact and fronts communications during incidents and enquiries.
Expert advice on request validity, timelines, exemptions and notification requirements — exactly when the clock is ticking.
Progress against the compliance check plus notable regulatory developments, reported consistently to senior leadership.
No recruitment, training or retention burden, and no compliance vacuum when an internal DPO resigns.
A project kick-off aligns scope and stakeholders, followed by discovery of your organisational structure, policies and processing activities.
We review your current data protection compliance and documentation, typically over about three working weeks including reporting.
You receive an assessment report identifying gaps with prioritised recommendations — the baseline your DPO service works against.
Your eDPO handles ongoing advice, document and DPIA reviews, DSAR and breach guidance, and regulator contact as your registered DPO.
Quarterly reports and governance-meeting attendance track progress against the baseline and keep leadership sighted on risk.
Straight answers to what prospective clients ask us most.
An external DPO (eDPO) provides advice and guidance on your organisation's data protection commitments and acts as the primary contact for regulators and individuals, including employees. They also monitor your compliance position and report on ongoing commitments and risks to the organisation.
It removes the cost of ongoing DPO training and development, reduces exposure to employee flight after you've invested in them, provides scalable access to multi-sector expertise, avoids conflicts of interest, and gives leadership an independent view through quarterly reporting.
An initial GDPR Compliance Check with a findings report, then quarterly compliance reports tracking the actions. Ongoing support includes DPIA and ROPA reviews, privacy notice and policy reviews, DSAR guidance, breach notification support and acting as your contact point with the regulator.
The initial GDPR Compliance Check typically takes around two working weeks of information gathering plus one week to draft and agree the report. Once it's delivered, the service moves into business-as-usual support.
The eDPO advises and guides — determining DSAR validity, timelines and exemptions, and advising on breach notification, including fronting regulator communications. Executing responses remains with your organisation, which preserves the independence the GDPR requires of the DPO role.
Get a fixed-scope quote, usually the same working day.
