I heard with interest a comment made in a BBC news item tonight relating to
the Soham case:-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3328533.stm
Quote:-
" 'Differing interpretations'
The second weakness related to the 1984 Data Protection Act.
"We had been informed by the Information Commissioner that the Data
Protection Act does not allow retention of information purely for employment
vetting," he said.
He said there were differing interpretations of what was required by
different agencies.
Mr Westwood said: "We face here the contradictory nature of two public
policies.
"First is the Data Protection Act which requires the removal of information
relating to individuals.
"Secondly is the retaining of information to protect vulnerable people.
"There is no national guidance on this. It is urgently needed."
He told journalists he would support any change in the law to come from the
Soham case, and welcomed the inquiry announced by the home secretary
following Wednesday's murder verdicts. "
Given the seriousness of the issues raised by the case, clearly matters need
resolving by the proper authorities.
How does DP determine the weeding criteria for personal data now?
It used to be that the users/controllers debated the retention period and
came to a consensus, based upon as firm a set of facts as possible, about
the proper retention for the material in question, then, as determined by
the data controller, either programatically or manually conducted the
weeding. I had also been under the firm impression there were nationally
agreed weeding rules for many police computing systems.
Has this changed, or are different processes to determine retention now in
operation?
Ian W
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