No doubt others will correct me if I'm wrong, but I read it that s.68 of the
Freedom of Information Act amends s.1(1)of the Data Protection Act to add a
new fifth category of data: "recorded information held by a public
authority [which] does not fall within any of paragraphs (a) to (d)". In
effect, therefore, *all* recorded information held by a public authority is
"data". If such data is also personal, it is therefore personal data and
access would be available under the Data Protection Act, for a fee of up to
£10, within 40 days and with the Data Protection Act restrictions - access
would only be granted to the Data Subject and third party confidentiality
would be protected, for example.
If it is not personal - i.e, post-Durant, not *about* an identifiable living
individual - it would not be personal data and therefore access would not be
available under the Data Protection Act, but under the Freedom of
Information Act, for free and with shorter time limits provided the cost was
within the limits.
Just thinking about how you would handle a collection which contains a
mixture of personal and non-personal data makes me glad not to be a public
authority DPO.
Paul Ticher
0116 273 8191
22 Stoughton Drive North, Leicester LE5 5UB
I hereby require any recipient of this message not to use my personal data
for direct marketing purposes.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kirsty Gray" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, December 13, 2004 12:19 PM
Subject: Unstructured personal data
Now that the FOIA fees regs have been laid before Parliament - anyone any
idea what we do about 'unstructured' personal data post 01/01/05?
Reg 3 (the appropriate limit) "(1) This regulation has effect to prescribe
the appropriate limit referred to in section 9A(3) and (4) of the 1998
Act ..." then goes on to confirm FOIA fees of £600 for central government
and £450 for other public authorities.
Reg 4 (estimating the cost of complying with a request - general) "...a
relevant request is any request to the extent that it is a request (a) for
unstructured personal data within the meaning of section 9A(1) of the 1998
Act and to which section 7(1) of that Act would, apart from the appropriate
limit, to any extent apply..."
Does this mean that Durant is definately no longer applicable to the public
sector? Must we estimate total cost of complying with a request for
unstructured personal data? And either respond (under the limit) or choose
to refuse unless full cost paid (over the limit)? Can we charge
disbursements for responding (under the limit)? Is that as well as or
instead of £10 SAR fee?
Has anyone seen any guidance from either DCA or ICO on this one? My search
attempts this AM brought up nothing. Am I the only one totally confused?
Kirsty E Gray
Access to Information Advisor
Commission for Social Care Inspection
Note: comments for discussion and debate only and do not necessarily
reflect the corporate position of CSCI nor constitute legal advice.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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 : -
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/help/commandref.htm
Any queries about sending or receiving message please send to the list owner
[log in to unmask]
(all commands go to [log in to unmask] not the list please)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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 : -
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/help/commandref.htm
Any queries about sending or receiving message please send to the list owner
[log in to unmask]
(all commands go to [log in to unmask] not the list please)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
|