I would welcome the thoughts of members on this issue.
I know that Mike Lloyd said recently that he had raised the issue with
UCAS but apparently they are *still* going down the lines of interpreting
the Data Protection Act 1998 as affording no protection from disclosing
confidential references *received* by a data controller.
As has been discussed before on the mailbase, the generally accepted
interpretation appears to be:
Schedule 7 of the Act deals with specific exemptions but relates only to
references *provided* by the data controller. However, the rights provided
in Section 7 of the Act itself allow references *received* by data
controller to be withheld in almost all circumstances, since by disclosing
them they would identify a third party. [apart from the fact that we
should respect the rights of the original data controller as well..]
I think it it still important that schools and colleges feel that they
*can* write confidential references as it could have a huge disadvantage
for students whose circumstances they feel thay cannot explain fully (for
example, problems with staffing or illess).
Does anyone else have any views on this?
__________________________________
Anne Johnson
Assistant Registrar (Student Systems)
University of Sussex; Tel: 01273 (67)8761
e-mail [log in to unmask]
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