I can't remember whether this was discussed on this list or I found it somewhere else equally reliable, but I am pretty sure of the following: If the student tells a member of staff about a disability, they cannot require the information to be kept secret by that member of staff. Provided the member of staff is acting in an official, not private, capacity they are an agent of the organisation and the student has, in effect, told the organisation. (What happens if the student mentions it down the pub, I don't know.) Even if the organisation needs at the time to make no "reasonable adjustments" to accommodate the disability, they may have to show in future that they considered that option and decided that it was unnecessary. Therefore it must be recorded formally. In order to prevent the student from feeling aggrieved if they did want the information kept secret, the organisation must ensure that all students know, before they talk to anyone about a disability, that secrecy is not an option (though confidentiality, on a need to know basis, certainly is). Also, individuals cannot voluntarily give up their rights under the Act. This means that if a "reasonable adjustment" is necessary, and would inevitably draw attention to the disability, the individual still cannot insist on secrecy by preventing the adjustment from being made. I can't give you chapter and verse on this. I think it must be in amendments to the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act. There's a section on it in the book I wrote on employment records, which was checked by a lawyer who did not say that I was wrong. (That's not an advert for the book, just evidence in support of what I've set out.) Hope this is useful, but interested if anyone else disagrees. Paul Ticher 0116 273 8191 22 Stoughton Drive North, Leicester LE5 5UB I hereby require any recipient of this message not to use my personal data for direct marketing purposes. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Nick Clark" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2005 10:19 AM Subject: DPA and Confidentiality A bit of advice required. A data subject (student in this case) discloses information about a behavioural or physical disability to a member of staff (e.g. a counsellor) and requests that this information be kept confidential. However the nature of this special need is such that action would need to be taken to enable access for the individual or to protect others; how should we handle this? Can it be disclosed or be required to be disclosed to the H&S Officer or to others that might be vulnerable? We have a duty of care here. We are trying to put together a policy for handling such cases, and ideally everything would be open and cosy and the individual would give their consent for the information to be used appropriately, but in reality the individual might not give us the information if they knew it would be used elsewhere. Thanks in advance for any advice. Nick Nick Clark Director of IT Services Tower Hamlets College +44(0)20 7536 5738 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 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 Any queries about sending or receiving message please send to the list owner [log in to unmask] (all commands go to [log in to unmask] not the list please) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 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 Any queries about sending or receiving message please send to the list owner [log in to unmask] (all commands go to [log in to unmask] not the list please) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^