ICO registration for a small business?

[localzuk]

As some may know, I'm in the middle of setting up a company to sell some software I've written over the last couple of years.

Now, something that was suggested to me was that running the software in a 'hosted' manner would get smaller schools interested more. However, this comes with a slight quandary with regards to Data Protection and being registered with the ICO.

I know I'd need to be registered with the ICO due to the system storing names of pupils, parents and teachers. The question I have is this - what difficulties would schools have, if any, with regards to getting their data onto my systems. Would they need to ask parents for specific permissions or would they be able to do it under normal 'running of the school' DPA coverage already agreed to by parents etc...?

I know that strictly speaking this wouldn't be my worry as such, but it'd be nice to know potential pitfalls so I can guide people correctly should they ask me.

I will also likely ask the ICO about this, but they usually take quite a while to respond, so thought I'd kick it off here first.

[AngryTechnician]

Depends on their current agreements with parents, but if it's just names, then in most schools their normal rules should allow them to do it, since they supply similar lists to companies such as school photographers on a regular basis.

This may help understand it from the school's point of view: Framework code of practice for sharing personal information