No you do not have to provide photocopies, only to provide the personal data in permanent form, and if you wish to retype it ( often sensible if there would be more redaction than disclosed info) .
Not specifically stated in the Act but court cases confirm that is the effect of s7 and s8(2) mots notably by the Court of Appeal in Durant:
*"The intention of the Directive, faithfully reproduced in the [1998] Act, is to enable an individual to obtain from a data controller's filing system, whether computerised or manual, his personal data, that is, information about himself. It is not an entitlement to be provided with original or copy documents as such, but, as Section 7(1)(c)(i) and 8(2) provide, with information constitut-ing personal data in intelligible and permanent form. This may be in documentary form pre-pared for the purpose and/or where it is convenient in the form of copies of original documents redacted if necessary to remove matters that do not constitute personal data (and/or to protect the interests of other individuals....".*
See also Ezsias v Welsh Commissioners at paras 53 and 54 :
*"There is a fundamental distinction between the right of access to data in the hands of another person for the purposes of protecting privacy, and the right to disclosure of documents. Mr Ezsias actually wishes to have disclosure of documents to assist his employment claim: and he labours under the misunderstanding that the right to access to data is necessarily coterminous with a right to disclosure of documents. It is not. Under the 1998 Act there is no right to have access to or copies of documents at all. Section 7 gives a data subject a right to be informed by any data controller whether personal data of which that individual is the data subject are being processed by or on behalf of that data controller: and if that be the case to be given a de-scription of those data, the purposes of the processing and the recipients of any disclosure, and (Section 7(1)(c)): "... to have communicated to him in an intelligible form (i) the information constituting any personal data of which that individual is the data subject, and*
*(ii) any information available to the data controller as to the source of those data...".*
*Whilst the obligation to disclose information in communicable form under Section 7(1)(c)(i) generally "must be complied with by supplying the data subject with a copy of the information in permanent form..." (Section 8(2)) - and this particular obligation may be met by providing the data subject with a copy of a pre-existing document containing the data and other relevant information required to be disclosed - that is not the equivalent of a right to disclosure of documents."*
----- Original Message -----
From: Jaines, Amy
Sent: 06/21/12 03:10 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [data-protection] Do I have to provide copies of documents in response to an SAR?
Dear All,
I’m sure this has been discussed on here many times before but I can’t seem to locate any of the previous conversations.
I am currently processing an SAR for an individual who has requested copies of all complaints that the Council has received and him/her and also the properties that they own. The requester is insistent that I provide redacted photocopies of the original complaints.
We have received about 50 or so complaints and I have advised that I would provide a summary of the requesters personal data that is contained within those documents, including the specific details that have been requested (i.e. date of the correspondence, date it was stamped into the office etc.).
I have looked and I cannot find anything in the legislation that states that I have to provide photocopies, only that I have to provide the information. Is this right or do I have to provide photocopies?
Many thanks in advance for any advice received.
Regards,
Amy Jaines- Information Governance Officer
Information Management
East Lindsey District Council,
Room 158, Tedder Hall, ManbyPark, Manby
Louth, Lincolnshire, LN11 8UP
Tel: 01507 613409 ext. 3409
E: [log in to unmask]
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