Good Morning All,
Having had a recent request for disclosure of data to the police, I am
beginning to question some working practice associated with the DPA 1998.
Firstly the disclosure must comply with schedule 2 (and 3 for sensitive
data) probably the "administration of justice" condition would suffice,
then 29(3) allows for the non-disclosure to be exempt where informing the
data subjectof disclosure to a third party would prejudice matters.
Ok the question is this, I have dealt with a 29(3) request from a Police
force, the form literally just tells me the offence (i.e. Murder) and a
blanket statement that the information is required to assist with
enquiries, this sound familiar? My question is this, I was of the opinion
that each disclosure was on a case-by-case basis, for that I need to know
what data is required and why, the police need to identify why failing to
disclose the data would be detrimental to their investigations, I do not
think a standard wording form with just "murder" written on it gives me
enough information to give an informed case-by-case decision on the
validity of disclosing the data.
However when questioned what exactly the information is required, how it
will assist in enquiries, for me to decide whether to disclose or not,
officers become very reluctant to provide such information, but without it
how can I be sure that releasing the data is valid. I know many of you may
answer that all authorities want to help the police, but put emotive
reasoning aside for one moment and ask are all police disclosures valid?.
Any advice would help, but I feel that most s29(3) forms from Police
sources are sadly lacking.
Paul Couldrey
Data Protection Officer
Wolverhampton City Council
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