Gwenan
The Act is retrospective because of the definitions of what is meant by the
data being "held" (1984 Act) and "processed" (1998 Act). The original Act
allowed for data that was not currently held in electronic format nor in a manner
intended for e-processing to be excluded. The new Act (further modified by
Durant and Johnson) says a similar thing about old manual data.
IMO your colleague is confusing the issue with offences - prior offences are
not retrospective unless specific provision is made in the law but the topic
or subject of the law can be retrospective according to the definitions of the
subject, as in this case. Another example would be FOI. If it only affected
information generated after 01/01/05 there would be very little info
available.
Ian B
--------
In a message dated 09/05/05 10:46:20 GMT Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
> I've been asked this morning by one of our academic members of staff how
> do I know that the Data Protection Act 1998 is a retrospective act ...
>
> He maintains that legislation is not retrospective unless specific
> provision is contained within the Act making it so, and that my
> ascertion that the Act IS retrospective without proof means that I am
> committing a breach of faith for those members of University staff who
> produced references (on paper) etc. before the Act came into being.
>
> Whilst I'm sure that I'm right, and have had a look through the Act this
> morning to try and find the relevant section ... I just can't find
> chapter and verse to quote. I would be most grateful if anyone could
> help me out!
-------
Ian Buckland
Managing Director
Keep IT Legal Ltd
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