GDPR and AI Governance Consultant UK

Q: Can BridgeLayer help with a subject access request?

Yes, on the operational side. We help you design and run the process: logging the request, verifying identity, locating the information across your systems, tracking the deadline, and coordinating review and redaction. Where a request raises a complex exemption question, we identify it and recommend you take advice from an appropriately qualified solicitor.

Free diagnostic

Find your highest priority GDPR and AI gaps in three minutes

Answer nine practical questions about privacy notices, subject access requests, processing records, direct marketing, breach readiness, suppliers and workplace AI use. You will receive an immediate indicative risk profile and a short list of the areas most worth addressing.

Your risk profile

See whether your current operational position appears Low, Moderate or Elevated.

Your priority areas

Identify the GDPR, privacy and AI matters most worth addressing.

Your next step

Receive links to support that matches your answers.

All nine questions are multiple choice, so you are never asked to type confidential business information.

Your answers are processed to generate your result. The scanner gives an indicative operational risk profile. It is general operational information, not legal advice, not a compliance determination and not a rating or certification of any kind. BridgeLayer Advisory is a compliance and operations consultancy and does not provide reserved legal services. Detail in our privacy notice.

BridgeLayer signature review

One complete operational review. One prioritised plan.

We review GDPR, privacy and workplace AI as one operating picture. You receive a clear assessment of the important gaps, a practical implementation sequence and a named owner and target date for every action.

What we review

Scope

GDPR and privacy practices
Privacy notices
Processing records
Subject access request readiness
Breach response
Direct marketing and PECR
Suppliers and processors
Workplace AI tools and rules

What you receive

Deliverables

Operational risk summary
Prioritised findings
Named action owners
Target completion dates
Thirty day implementation sequence
Agreed policy and process documents
Sixty minute founder walkthrough

Final position

Where it leaves you

Responsibilities assigned
GDPR records organised
SAR process ready
Breach response route established
Marketing controls documented
AI tools placed under clear rules
Management evidence prepared

Many reviews stop after identifying the problem. BridgeLayer converts each finding into a clear action with a priority, responsible owner and target date.

The final output is a working business plan, not a folder of generic policies.

Illustrative example using a fictional business
Finding	Priority	Owner	Target
AI use rules not agreed	High	Directors	Week 1
Marketing contacts not categorised	High	Marketing	Week 2
SAR responsibility unclear	Medium	Operations	Week 3

Ongoing Governance Support

Available after an initial review

Periodic review, change support and a standing point of contact as your business and the rules move. Scope and fees are agreed case by case once a review has been completed, so we are working from a real picture rather than a guess.

See the Founding Client Launch Offer Read the illustrative plan

Founding Client Launch Offer

Secure one of ten Founding Client places

Ten eligible UK businesses can receive the complete Privacy, GDPR and AI Operations Review at the Founding Client Rate.

Founding clients are the first ten UK businesses we work with. You receive the complete review, the written action plan and the founder walkthrough at the Founding Client Rate.

The application takes approximately two minutes. Scope and engagement terms are confirmed in writing before work begins.

Paid engagements begin from September 2026.

Read the full illustrative plan first

10 of 10 Founding Client places available.

Ten Founding Client places in total, all currently available.

Availability last checked 30 July 2026.

Exclusive Founding Client pricing

Planned standard price £1,900 from September 2026

Founding Client Rate £950 limited launch rate

Half the planned standard price

GDPR and privacy practice review
Workplace AI use review
Review of important processes and documents
Prioritised findings
Named action owners
Target dates
Thirty day implementation sequence
Sixty minute founder walkthrough

Apply for a Founding Client place

Fixed scope and fee, agreed in writing before any work begins.

Support areas

What do you need help with?

Start with the issue that brought you here. We can review it on its own or include it in the complete Operations Review.

ICO registration support

You are not sure whether your business needs to pay the ICO data protection fee, or what the registration asks for.

Assessment of whether registration is likely to apply to you
Gathering the business information the ICO asks for
Walking you through the registration process
Preparing the information needed to complete it

Ask about ICO registration

Subject access request support

Someone has asked for their data and the clock is running, or you want a process before that happens.

SAR process design and request logging
Identity-verification workflow
Data-location coordination across your systems
Response process and deadline tracking
Redaction and escalation workflow

Get help with a subject access request

Privacy notices

Your privacy notice was written years ago and describes a business that no longer exists.

Website privacy notice review and rewrite
Employee privacy notices
Customer privacy information
Notice-to-practice alignment
Checking the notice reflects your actual data use

Review privacy notice support

Data mapping and processing records

Nobody can say exactly what personal data the business holds, where it lives or why.

Data inventory and data-flow mapping
Processing-purpose records
Systems and vendor mapping
Retention responsibilities
Records proportionate to your processing, not a template

Ask about data mapping

Data breach readiness

If something went wrong tomorrow, nobody is quite sure who decides what, or how fast.

Breach reporting workflow and staff reporting route
Internal escalation and incident logging
Responsibility assignment
72-hour assessment process

Prepare a breach response process

Direct marketing and PECR

Your list has grown organically and you cannot show which rules apply to which contacts.

Marketing-list categorisation by recipient type
Corporate and individual subscriber distinctions
Contact-source review
Opt-out and suppression processes
Email and SMS process review, and record-keeping

Review direct marketing

Workplace AI governance

Your team is already using AI tools and nobody has agreed what may be typed into them.

AI-tool inventory and approved-tool list
Data-handling rules and prohibited uses
One-page staff AI policy
Vendor assessment and human-review requirements
AI-risk screening process

Create workplace AI rules

Vendor and processor support

A client's procurement team has asked what your suppliers do with their data, and the answer is an assumption.

Vendor inventory and processor identification
Contract-document collection
Due-diligence questionnaires
Responsibility tracking
Renewal review process

Review suppliers and processors

Why BridgeLayer

Why businesses choose BridgeLayer

The service is built for growing teams that need practical controls, clear responsibilities and work that can be maintained after the review ends.

Founder led delivery

You work directly with our founders rather than an account-management layer. The people who review your business are the people who wrote the plan, and both of them run businesses themselves.

GDPR and AI in one operating model

Privacy and workplace AI are reviewed together, because the same customer, employee and supplier information now moves through both traditional systems and AI tools.

Practical implementation

We do not stop at identifying a problem. Findings become named actions, owners, priorities and target dates, so the plan tells you who does what by when.

Designed for growing SMEs

Recommendations are proportionate to the size, systems, team and risk profile of your business. Enterprise frameworks bolted onto a fifteen-person company help nobody.

Clear fixed scope

You know the scope, the deliverables and the fee before work begins. No hourly meter, no scope creep, no invoice that arrives as a surprise.

Visible deliverables

You receive a written action plan designed to be used rather than filed. You can read the whole illustrative version on this site before you speak to us.

The final operational position

What completion looks like

The review is designed to leave the business with clear responsibilities, documented processes and evidence that priority actions have been completed.

Completed: GDPR data map complete

The business has an up to date record of its important personal data activities, systems and owners.

Completed: Subject access request process ready

Requests have a clear intake route, named responsibility and deadline tracking.

Completed: Workplace AI rules approved

Approved tools, prohibited uses and human review responsibilities are documented.

Completed: Marketing records organised

Contacts are categorised and opt out and suppression processes are maintained.

Completed: Breach response route active

Staff know how to report an incident and who owns the assessment.

Completed: Privacy ownership assigned

Each important privacy responsibility has a named owner and review date.

Sample deliverable

The illustrative GDPR and AI action plan

See exactly what you receive before you speak to anyone. Below is a preview. The full version is on the site and available as a PDF.

Illustrative example. Fictional organisation.

GDPR and AI Operations Review: Action Plan

XYZ Recruitment Ltd. 14 staff. London. Prepared by BridgeLayer Advisory.

Business profile

A 14-person recruitment agency placing permanent candidates with UK employers. Holds candidate CVs, client contacts and employee records. Runs its own email marketing. Consultants use AI tools informally to speed up shortlisting and drafting.

Overall risk position

Moderate operational risk

XYZ Recruitment Ltd is a well-run agency with careful people in it. The findings below are typical of a business that has grown faster than the documents written for it. Three would become difficult quickly under scrutiny from a candidate, a client procurement team or the regulator. None require a large project to address.

Key findings

Extract: four of eleven findings shown. The full plan is in the PDF.
Finding	Why it matters	Priority	Owner	Target date
Marketing list is not categorised by recipient type	Different direct-marketing rules apply to corporate subscribers and to individual subscribers such as sole traders. Without categorisation the team cannot show which approach applies to which contacts.	High	Marketing lead	Week 2
Candidate CVs pasted into consumer AI tools	Personal data leaves controlled systems with no record of where it went, what the tool retains, or whether the candidate would expect it.	High	Directors	Week 1
Privacy notice describes an earlier version of the business	The notice omits tools and activities now in daily use, so it no longer describes what actually happens to candidate data.	High	Operations lead	Week 3
No named owner for the 72-hour breach decision	A decision with a statutory deadline needs an owner appointed before the day it is needed.	Medium	Directors	Week 2

Thirty-day action sequence

Week 1: circulate the one-page workplace AI rules. Approved tools, what may be entered, what never may, and who to ask when it is not obvious.
Week 2: categorise the marketing list by recipient type and source, document the position for each group, and suppress contacts that cannot lawfully be used.
Week 3: build the processing record in one working session, focused on regular and higher-risk activity.
Week 4: name owners for breach and subject access request decisions, then walk both routes through as a dry run.

XYZ Recruitment Ltd is a fictional organisation created solely to demonstrate the format of a BridgeLayer action plan. It is not a client and any resemblance to a real business is coincidental. Findings, owners and dates are illustrative. Real plans are built from your operations and remain operational documents. They are not legal advice and not a compliance determination.

Download the full illustrative plan Read it on this page instead

PDF. Fictional business. Sample content. 36 KB, three pages.

Process

How the review works

Four steps. We tell you what we need at each one, so nothing stalls waiting on a document nobody knew we wanted.

Initial assessment

We review your scanner result or discuss the specific concern that prompted the call, then confirm scope and fee in writing before anything else happens.

You provide: a short conversation. We provide: a written scope and fixed fee.

Evidence and working session

We review the documents, tools and working practices that matter, then sit with the people who actually do the work rather than reading about it.

You provide: existing notices, key vendor list, tool access, one working session. We provide: the questions and the structure.

Prioritised action plan

We set out what needs attention now, what can reasonably wait and who should own each action, with target dates against every item.

You provide: names for the owner column. We provide: the written plan and the agreed artefacts.

Founder walkthrough

Sixty minutes with one of our founders to explain the plan, answer operational questions and mark clearly where specialist legal advice is recommended.

You provide: the people who will do the work. We provide: the walkthrough and a clear next-step sequence.

Who you work with

Founders

BridgeLayer is a two person, founder led consultancy. You work directly with the people whose names are on it.

Tushant Rathod

Co-founder

Tushant's background is technology and business operations. He has spent his career running customer-facing businesses rather than advising from the outside, which means he has sat on the client side of compliance advice for years and knows which recommendations survive contact with a working week.

He holds the Practitioner Certificate in Data Protection through PDP Training and has completed contract-law training with HarvardX. His current focus is the practical implementation of GDPR and AI governance in small teams: which tools are in use, what data reaches them, and what rules people will realistically follow.

Practitioner Certificate in Data Protection, PDP Training
Contract law training, HarvardX
Technology and operations background, customer-facing businesses

Tushant on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)

Anish Agrawal

Co-founder

Anish has spent more than twenty-five years owning and operating businesses across trading, construction projects, manufacturing, government supplies, leasing and finance.

His businesses have qualified for and delivered government tenders and assignments for major corporate customers. These processes often require statutory registrations, filed accounts, financial standing, technical documentation and successful vendor due diligence before commercial capability is considered.

He has managed compliance from inside the business as the person accountable for licences, approvals, registrations, inspections, tender qualifications and delivery obligations.

At BridgeLayer, Anish leads commercial strategy. He tests every recommendation against two practical questions: does it address the relevant requirement, and can the business operate it consistently in practice?

More than twenty-five years of business ownership across trading, construction projects, manufacturing, government supplies, leasing and finance
Experience qualifying for and delivering government tenders and work for major corporate customers
First-hand responsibility for statutory registrations, approvals, inspections, licences, vendor onboarding and recurring compliance reviews
Commercial and operational leadership within multi-entity businesses

BridgeLayer combines formal privacy and contract training with decades of practical business-operating experience. Every recommendation is tested against two questions: does it address the real risk, and can a small team realistically maintain it?

FAQ

Questions we are asked

What does a GDPR consultant do?

A GDPR consultant reviews how a business collects, stores, uses and shares personal data, identifies where practice has drifted from what the UK GDPR expects, and helps put working processes in place. Our GDPR compliance reviews cover privacy notices, records of processing, subject access requests, direct marketing, breach readiness, vendors and workplace AI use, and produce a prioritised action plan with named owners and target dates.

Does my business need an ICO registration?

Most UK organisations that process personal data must pay the ICO data protection fee, though exemptions exist and the position depends on what your business actually does. We help you assess whether registration is likely to apply, gather the information the registration asks for and understand the process. The determination and the registration itself remain yours to make with the ICO. We are not the ICO and we cannot approve or confirm your position for it.

Can BridgeLayer help with a subject access request?

Yes, on the operational side. We help you organise and manage the process: logging the request, verifying identity, locating the information across your systems, tracking the deadline, and coordinating review and redaction. Where a request raises a complex exemption question, we identify it and recommend you take advice from an appropriately qualified solicitor. More on SAR support.

Can BridgeLayer review our privacy notice?

Yes. We review website, employee and customer privacy information against what your business actually does with personal data, which is usually where the gap sits. Notices tend to describe an earlier version of the business. We identify the differences and rewrite the notice so it matches practice. More on privacy-notice support.

What is a GDPR compliance review?

A structured look at how your business manages personal data day to day: documentation, processes, responsibilities and records. We identify practical gaps, rate them by real risk to your business, and set out what to fix first. You receive a written action plan rather than a list of regulatory extracts. You can read the full illustrative plan before you speak to us.

Can BridgeLayer help us create a workplace AI policy?

Yes. We inventory the AI tools your team actually uses, agree an approved-tool list, set rules for what information may and may not be entered, define where human review is required, and issue a one-page policy staff will follow. Rules nobody reads change nothing, so we keep it to a page. More on workplace AI governance.

What happens if our business has a data breach?

You need to know quickly who assesses it and whether it meets the threshold for reporting to the ICO within 72 hours. We help you build that route in advance: how staff report an incident, who logs it, who decides, and what evidence is kept. We support the operational response. Where a breach raises questions of legal exposure, we identify the boundary and recommend you take advice from an appropriately qualified solicitor. More on breach readiness.

Who is the Founding Client Offer for?

The first ten UK businesses we work with, typically 10 to 50 staff, holding customer or employee data, running their own marketing, or with teams already using AI tools. We speak most often with recruitment agencies, marketing agencies, professional-services firms and growing B2B technology businesses. Requesting a place costs nothing and is not binding. See the Founding Client Offer.

Is the risk scanner legal advice?

No. The scanner gives an indicative operational risk profile based on nine multiple-choice answers. It is general operational information. It is not legal advice, not a compliance determination, and not a rating, score or certification of any kind. It cannot account for your contracts, your sector rules or the specifics of your processing, which is what a proper review is for.

What information does the scanner collect?

Nine multiple-choice answers and nothing else. There are no free-text questions, so you are never invited to enter personal or confidential business information. Your answers are processed to generate your result. If you request a written copy by email, we hold that email address so that we can send it and reply to you. Our privacy notice sets out every processor involved and how long we keep things.

Is BridgeLayer UK-based?

Yes. We are based in London and work with businesses across the United Kingdom. The service is built around UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, ICO expectations and PECR, and around how UK small businesses actually operate day to day.

When do paid engagements begin?

Paid engagements begin from September 2026. Requesting a Founding Client place before then costs nothing and is not binding on either side.

Contact

Tell us what is prompting the review

Whether you want to discuss a scanner result, request a Founding Client place, or sense-check whether the service is appropriate for your business, send us a short note. One of our founders will respond, normally within one working day.

Prefer to talk? Choose a convenient time for a 15 minute intro call.

Or email us at contact@bridgelayeradvisory.com.