Adopting sectional perspectives over this does not serve to draw out many of
the issues involved. By far the majority of legislation is there with a
purpose and has been carefully considered, even if that purpose is not
generally obvious. Legislation which determines (non)disclosure practices
clearly has to be followed, after all, where it exists, it often provides
the easiest answer. The DPA would not mean much at all if these things were
ignored, even if they are disputed.
Consider a situation where the policing authorities did have access to
medical material about venereal diseases medical practitioners held. Would
any criminal offender, where that type of material could be relevant seek
medical advice? If not, what would the resulting implications for their
victims be and what would that add to their sad trauma?
Like David Wyatt I too wonder what does happen to that type of information
if it is held by employers or insurance companies. How many breaches of the
NHS (Venereal Diseases) Regulations occur as a result of sympathetic
responses to requests? I suppose it all goes to show a need for the medical
profession to carefully edit disclosures as a means of providing only
relevant material to the issue any disclosure is made for, even where the
police or others may not be happy with that. If restrictions exist on who
may hold the material, even better.
Ian W
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
All archives of messages are stored permanently and are
available to the world wide web community at large at
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/data-protection.html
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 : -
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/help/commandref.htm
(all commands go to [log in to unmask] not the list please)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
