I would go along with Option ii) - just get the recipient of the
questionnaire to contact the student and ask them if they would like to have
the Student Support Office contact them. I think you can easily justify
processing the data for purposes other than the one originally intended on
the grounds that it is in the "vital interests of the data subject". You
also have to consider the possibility that the individual concerned might
have been joking. Some people have a very peculiar sense of humour.
-----Original Message-----
From: Okey, Andrew [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 09 January 2004 12:24
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [data-protection] DPO vs DDA
> Hi folks,
>
> A Friday conundrum. I'd be grateful for views, particularly if anyone has
experienced similar circumstances.
>
> At the start of the academic year our quality office distributed
questionnaires to incoming first years asking them what their personal goals
were for their years at university (this was as part of our "Growing
Lancaster Graduates" project on personal devlopment and progress files). One
student stated on their form that their personal goal was to 'battle with
and defeat their serious mental health problems'. They submitted the form
with their name and signature. Our quality office mentioned this instance
(no names, though) to our Student Support office, who wanted to contact the
student to offer advice. The issues arising from this seem to be -
>
> (i) So far as I was concerned, the student had consentingly submitted data
for the purposes of a particular survey only, so I was not prepared to allow
Student Support to have their details or act on them.
>
> (ii) I did feel, however, that our quality office could at least write to
the student to inform them of the services Student Support could offer. Now
I know that the questionnaire wasn't intended for that purpose so this could
be deemed to be "unfair processing", but I felt that the chances of the
student in question feeling that this concept had been breached would be
small.
>
> (iii) But, the Student Support office have pointed out that, in any case,
Part 4 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 seems to place an
obligation on public bodies to act in support of anyone who declares, in any
'official' way a disability - where support is not proferred, a public body
may fall foul of the law in such cases. Hence, we appear to have a conflict
between two bodies of legislation, particularly in regard of whether a
release of information to Student Support as in (i) above is actually
permissible.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Andrew Okey
> Lancaster University
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