At 11:55 am +0000 17/1/03, Andrew Kinglake wrote:
>After speaking to the Information Commissioners Office they have said that
>even though the staff would have been working in an official capacity this
>would be classed as personal data and should be removed.
[...]
> could removing this data be considered to be obstructive
>considering that the requestor has probably been provided with this
>in the past?
The advice you've had from the IC Office doesn't sound entirely
consistent with their published advice. One of the Information
Commissioner's leaflets says:
"7.6 The fact that the same information has previously been provided
to the data subject or is already known to him/her will also be
relevant in assessing reasonableness. As will the fact that
particular information is generally publicly available.
Example: The data controller's records detailing the data subject's
claim for benefit include the name of the officer dealing with the
claim. The officer had provided his/her name on an earlier occasion
when he/she met the claimant in interview to complete the claim
forms. The data controller would not be justified in withholding the
officer's name in these circumstances.
It follows that a data controller is less likely to be able to
justify withholding the information where the third party is a member
of staff acting in the course of his/her duties rather than an
individual acting in a private capacity."
(Information Comissioner, Data Protection Act, 1998, Subject Access
Rights and Third Party Information, Version 2, 02/03/00)
Maurice Frankel
Campaign for Freedom of Information
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
All archives of messages are stored permanently and are
available to the world wide web community at large at
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/data-protection.html
If you wish to leave this list please send the command
leave data-protection to [log in to unmask]
All user commands can be found at : -
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/user-manual/summary-user-commands.htm
(all commands go to [log in to unmask] not the list please)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
|