Leif, IMHO
Under the 1984 Act, the Registrar published advice on the 'Disclosures made
by Local Authorities to Elected Councillors/Members'. Basically, it said
that it was allowed if you were registered (we were) and it didn't breach
any of the Principles (hope not).
Councillors may be exposed to personal data about Council employees through
their committee work or other Council business. In this situation the
elected member is acting as a member of the authority. They may also
approach Council officials in their capacity as a representative of a
constituent. This would have to be registered accordingly and Council
officials would have to be satisfied that the elected member was acting with
the full authority of the data subject.
However, in all cases Council officials will have a duty of confidentiality
to the employee and can only disclose information in line with the
registration and Principles. I would suggest that requests for personal
information should always be channelled through a senior officer of the
Council and all elected members made aware of the procedure. Any
(theoretical) breach would deserve a swift kick in the b** from the Leader
of the Council. Its hard for inexperienced members of staff to stand up to
that kind of intimidation, but it is a breach of procedure (and probably the
law) and should be treated seriously, although with mitigation.
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