Hi Patrick,
Even though the Durant case has currently narrowed the definition of Personal Data, when the FOIA comes into force in January it extends the definition of Personal Data to "unstructured manual files". Therefore these files can be requested through FOI but disclosure of information will be governed by the Data Protection Principles unless a Public Interest test applies..
Hope this helps.
Regards
Steve
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Stephen Cotterill
Senior Technical Assistant
Broxtowe Borough Council,
E-Mail: <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Watson, Patrick [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 07 September 2004 10:56
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Interaction between DPA and FOI
Can colleagues help me to clarify some issues relating to the interaction between data protection and FOI. Many manual files
including personnel files do not meet the Court of Appeal (Durant) definition of a relevant filing system and are therefore not disclosable under the
subject access provisions of the DPA. If a file is not considered to be personal data then what access is there to this file by the data subject through
FOI?
Thanks
Patrick
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