Dear Matt
My employers asked me to prepare a summary of fines and prosecutions last year as part of a risk assessment process. I took the details from the 1998, 1999 and 2000 Commissioner's report and the data are pasted into this message below.
I hope you find it useful.
Carolynn
Carolynn Bain - Archivist Tel: 0131 243 9524
The National Trust for Scotland Fax: 0131 243 9599
Wemyss House Email: [log in to unmask]
28 Charlotte Square URL: http://www.nts.org.uk
Edinburgh EH2 4ET
1998
The Commissioner's Office received 4173 complaints, out of which they investigated 1753 [42%]. 792 complaints [19% of the total] were received concerning direct marketing. The investigations resulted in 27 prosecution cases, the majority of which [22] were convictions against unregistered data users. Fines ranging from £50 to £2500 plus costs were levied by the courts.
1999
3653 complaints were received and 1753 [48%] were investigated. 694 complaints [19% of the total] were received in connection with direct marketing. 59 cases [0.02% of the total number of complaints] proceeded to court and 55 resulted in prosecution. Of those the majority [37] were again convictions against unregistered data users, with 3 convictions for using data for unregistered purposes. Fines ranged from £250 to £2500 plus costs, with one firm being fined £8000 in total for separate offences. In this year a company director was successfully prosecuted for conniving in the commission of offences.
2000
The Commissioner received 4570 complaints and investigated 2056 [45%]. 822 complaints [18% of the total] related to direct marketing. 145 cases of those investigated [0.04% of the total number of complaints] proceeded to court and 130 resulted in prosecutions. There were 91 convictions for procuring data unlawfully, and 7 for using data for unregistered purposes. Fines ranged from £50 to £3500 plus costs per offence.
-----Original Message-----
From: Stephenson,M [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2001 10:08 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Fines and other punishments
Dear All,
I am sending this email on behalf of a friend who is not subscribed to this
list.
She is making a speech or a presentation and would like anecdotal
information regarding fines, other punishments and problems caused as a
result of non-compliance with data protection or freedom of information
legislation etc around the world as well as the UK.
She has looked on US and UK mailing list archives without a great deal of
success and has pleaded with me to pass on this message to this list-serv.
Any replies will be gratefully received.
Many thanks
Matthew Stephenson
Matthew Stephenson
Records Manager
Room H616
London School of Economics
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
Tel: 020 7955 6481
Fax: 020 7404 5510
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
If you wish to leave this list please send the command
leave data-protection to [log in to unmask]
All user commands can be found at : -
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/user-manual/summary-user-commands.htm
all commands go to [log in to unmask] not the list please!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^