I wonder whether anyone else (possibly in the HE sector) has recently
received a letter from the Benefits Investigation Service?
At Bangor it was sent to the Academic Registrar and says that they are
currently making enquiries in connection with a number of offences which
appear to have been committed against the Benefits Agency and believe that
the university could help them progress the investigations. It goes on to
request a computer produced list of all current undergraduates showing
names, date of birth, national insurance numbers and start date of
course(s)! Obviously alarm bells started to ring in the Academic Registry
and they sent the letter on to me.
The letter goes on to say that under section 28 of the Data Protection Act
1984 (!) disclosure of this information is permitted (and they very
helpfully give a photocopy of the relevant section).
Now, I'm not sure at all about this. As I read it this section 28 (or I
think section 29 of the 'new' 1998 Act) does talk about the prevention and
detection of crime etc. but surely this would be classed as a 'fishing'
exercise? It would perhaps be a different thing if they requested
information on a specific student because they had reason to believe
him/her to be defrauding the Agency?
I would really welcome some guidance and comments on this!
Gwenan
--
______________________________________________________________________
Gwenan Owen
Copyright/Data Protection Officer
Information Services, University of Wales Bangor,
Main Arts Library, College Road,
Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2DG, UK
tel: (01248) 382413
fax: (01248) 382979
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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