John,
Whilst there is no duty of confidentiality attached to such information
(see case below), there is still a right to privacy. Technically the
only people who should be privvy to this information within your
organisation are the individual, the line management and any HR
professionals involved.
Whilst convictions are pronounced in open court, due to rehabilitation
and the article 8 rights to privacy, convictions information should only
be asked for and given where necessary justifed and proportionate. This
also allows rehabilitation to occur. To 'further publicise' (see PECK v
UK, ECHR, CCTV footage of attempted suicide in public street given to
and broadcast in media) can attract damages.
Were this not the case, All convictions would be available on a
national database for anyone to browse and the Police national computer
would be public domian information. As it happens at present court
records are only searchable by time, date and place of conviction, so
unless you were in court at the time or know the exact time, date and
place of conviction it would make it extremely hard for this to be
'public knowledge'.
That being said, were the local papers/press/medis to have published
this information, then you are hardly telling anyone anything that isn't
already in the public domain at that time? If this is not the case it
may even be a breach to state that 'an individual' has been charged with
the misconduct, as people are likely to deduce the identity of the
individual. I assume you would claim a s34 exemption, or reason 5 of
schedule 3.
Without knowing details of the misconduct it is difficult to go further
- if the misconduct was a highly public affair (example of Nick Leeson,
or beating a client in the public reception) - it is likely that this
information is public anyway.
Hope this helps
Elliot v Chief Constable of Wiltshire
(Times Law Reports 11 July 1997)
No duty of confidentiality attached to convictions pronounced in open
court
810H,
Ralph T B O'Brien
Group Data Protection Officer
Metropolitan Housing Group
020 8829 8070
[log in to unmask]
Cambridge House
109 Mayes Road
Wood Green
London N22 6UR
www.mht-group.co.uk
Views expressed may be those of the sender and may not reflect
Metropolitan Housing Groups policy.
>>> John Hughes <[log in to unmask]> 12/05/2004 09:44:30 >>>
A bit of advice please ...........
A group email has recently been sent to all members of staff to inform
them
that a former member of staff is currently in court charged with
alleged
serious misconduct. The email names the person, includes details of
the
charges and details of when the person worked here and in which
department.
I have queried this on a number of counts, not least that it was not
necessary to disclose all this information to all members of staff.
The
response has been that it was done to inform everyone of the facts in
case
they field an external call - also that the information is in the
public
domain as it is being quoted in open court.
Can anyone give me some guidance? Does the fact that this person is
currently up in court for "alleged" offences justify disclosure of
both
personal data (employment details) and sensitive personal data
(offences) to
everyone in his previous place of employment on the grounds that it is
now
in the public domain?
Regards
John
John Hughes
Data Protection Officer
Extension 5671
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