Dear all,
I am wrestling with the following scenario.
Health care organisation xyz gets a call that some of their data (forms and documents) relating to child protection case ABC (which went to the high court) were found in a garden 3 years after the case closed.
Health care organisation xyz begins to track back to find out how said documents arrived in garden. Along the way they come to council 123. Council 123 says we handled them as part of the case, provided them to the relevant parties (solicitors and subjects to the proceedings as well as the court). Case finished, council had no more role and it retained its copies (sitting very nicely in secure storage unit undisturbed). All well and good, but here is the issue.
Health care organisation wants names and contact details of the parties to the child case to complete the investigation and find out who did not handle or dispose properly the information from the health care provider . There is concern that child proceedings are confidential and healthcare organisation does not have authority nor is there a high enough public interest to disclose the contact details of the party to the dispute.
I cannot see a reason under the dpa to stop providing the contact information. The health care organisation is trying to investigate a breach so I would have thought schedule 2 (6) would have been sufficient.
However, I am unaware of how the confidentiality proceedings around children's cases go, but I would have thought that this would be allowed.
Is anyone aware of and can point me to relevant case law or decisions relating to maintaining the confidentiality of children's court cases as overriding an organisation's legitimate interests in investigating the apparent data breach?
One way to handle it, is to act as a middle man and do the investigation and pass on the information but that does not remove the principle as the health care organisation has to be able to contact the parties involved and the council would still be processing personal information.
Any advice or guidance would be appreciated.
Best
Lawrence
Lawrence W. Serewicz
Principal Information Management Officer
Room 4/140
Durham County Council
DH1 5UF
0191-372-8371
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