I think every employee of a public authority is responsible to the public.
Legal liability should reside with the authority; but what I would argue is
that some organisations (and the people who work for them) use Data
Protection as a cloak of invisibility. Accountability isn't a matter of
blame, it's a matter of being willing to explain and justify what happens,
when things go wrong, and when they go right. The evolutionary end of an
approach which allows DP too much prominence in the workplace is that no
information is ever published at all, because all minutes, all reports, all
policies and all procedures are ultimately the output of people. We could
all put our names on the bottom of embarrassing documents, claim the data on
the document was personal to ourselves because we generated it, and the
shutters come down completely.
Obviously, public sector staff need to be able to do their jobs without
endless interference, but there can't be a situation where every decision is
made, and every meeting attended only by "Employee X" and "Employee Y".
Faceless bureaucracies lose public confidence awfully quickly.
Tim Turner
Data and Information Security Officer
Derbyshire County Council
Tel: 01629 580000 ext. 7373
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sarah Westwood [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2003 11:41 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [data-protection] Committee Membership
>
> The implication of this discussion is that every employee of a public
> authority should be held personally liable for its actions, and I
> profoundly disagree. Most of the policy decisions I make for example are
> agreed by my line manager and at least one College committee, so I think
> liability for any cock-up I may or may not make is a corporate one. Our
> soon-to-be published corporate records management policy makes this clear
> under the "responsibilities" section.
>
> Having said that I have no problem at all with making my name public, as
> you can see!
>
> Sarah Westwood
> Records Management Officer
> Girton College
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, 25 Sep 2003 11:13:39 +0100, Broom, Doreen
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> >***** THIS EMAIL WAS SENT VIA THE INTERNET *****
> >
> >Hi All
> >
> >I would have thought like Councillors - if you wish to stand on any
> public
> >committee/forum you are literally public property and have to be
> >accountable.
> >
> >Doreen Broom
> >Access to Information Officer
> >Scottish Borders Council
> >Tel@: 01835 826516
> >Fax@: 01835 825041
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Owen Parry [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> > Sent: 25 September 2003 10:07
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Committee Membership
> >
> > ***** THIS EMAIL WAS RECEIVED FROM THE INTERNET *****
> >
> > Colleagues
> >
> > A possible area of conflict between the DPA and FOI has been
> brought
> >to my
> > attention and although I give my views below, I'd welcome any
> >comments.
> >
> > Issue: We are beginning to publish the minutes and related papers
> of
> >some
> > University committees on our web site. Some members of those
> >committees
> > (academics at HE institutions) are concerned that the publication
> of
> >those
> > minutes will reveal the fact of their membership which they
> consider
> >to be
> > personal information.
> >
> > Some concerns have been expressed that it would be possible for a
> > complaining student to see who the members of our Academic Board
> >were who
> > disallowed his appeal and approach them directly to harrass them
> >(although
> > the contents of any such discussion would not appear in the
> minutes,
> >being
> > classed as 'reserved business' under an obvious exemption).
> >
> > My view:
> > My view is that although membership of a committee might be
> deemed
> >personal
> > information, the whole point of the FOI Act is to ensure that the
> >conduct of
> > public bodies is open and transparent and that the days of
> anonymous
> > committees in dark smoke filled rooms are numbered. As the
> details
> >and
> > membership of our committees are published elsewhere (University
> >Calendar),
> > it is illogical to suppress either minutes of committees or
> details
> >of who
> > attended a particular meeting. Any student who wanted to harrass
> >committee
> > members would simply borrow the Calendar from his institution's
> >library.
> >
> > Further, the fact that the Information Commissioner has approved
> the
> >model
> > publication scheme for HEIs which requires committees details and
> >minutes to
> > be included also indicates that he does not consider there to be
> a
> >conflict
> > with the DPA ( or if he does, then has decided in favour of
> >publication).
> >
> > Any contributions ?
> >
> >
> >
> > Owen Parry
> > Pennaeth Cyfrifiadura Gweinyddol / Head of Administrative
> Computing
> > Prifysgol Cymru / University of Wales
> > Tel: (029) 2038 2656 Ffacs/Fax: (029) 2039 6040
> >
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