One question to ask. Which is a nightmare, even though in theory it is
simple is, does the health care organization keep data controllership as a
joint or in-common controller over the information and what weight would
that have?

I do not think there is any issue in disclosing the information you mention
and in fact many agencies share confidential and personal information under
an umbrella information sharing agreement, which may incorporate formal
statements on what might be expected in these situations. 

My own view on this is that the information MUST be shared if only from an
ethical point of view, as in my opinion (in that case at least) the single
most important thing is finding the root cause of the breach and ensuring
that it does not happen again. 

-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lawrence Serewicz
Sent: 06 September 2011 07:26
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [data-protection] Does children's case management law trump the
dpa?

Dear all,
I am wrestling with the following scenario.

Health care organisation xyz gets a call that some of their data (forms and
documents) relating to child protection case ABC (which went to the high
court) were found in a garden 3 years after the case closed.

Health care organisation xyz begins to track back to find out how said
documents arrived in garden. Along the way they come to council 123.
Council 123 says we handled them as part of the case, provided them to the
relevant parties (solicitors and subjects to the proceedings as well as the
court). Case finished, council had no more role and it retained its copies
(sitting very nicely in secure storage unit undisturbed).  All well and
good, but here is the issue.

Health care organisation wants names and contact details of the parties to
the child case to complete the investigation and find out who did not handle
or dispose properly the information from the health care provider .  There
is concern that child proceedings are confidential and healthcare
organisation does not have authority nor is there a high enough public
interest to disclose the contact details of the party to the dispute.

I cannot see a reason under the dpa to stop providing the contact
information. The health care organisation is trying to investigate a breach
so I would have thought schedule 2 (6) would have been sufficient.

However, I am unaware of how the confidentiality proceedings around
children's cases go, but I would have thought that this would be allowed.

Is anyone aware of and can point me to relevant case law or decisions
relating to maintaining the confidentiality of children's court cases as
overriding an organisation's legitimate interests in investigating the
apparent data breach?

One way to handle it, is to act as a middle man and do the investigation and
pass on the information but that does not remove the principle as the health
care organisation has to be able to contact the parties involved and the
council would still be processing personal information.

Any advice or guidance would be appreciated.

Best

Lawrence

Lawrence W. Serewicz
Principal Information Management Officer
Room 4/140
Durham County Council
DH1 5UF
0191-372-8371


Help protect our environment by only printing this email if absolutely
necessary. The information it contains and any files transmitted with it are
confidential and are only intended for the person or organisation to whom it
is addressed. It may be unlawful for you to use, share or copy the
information, if you are not authorised to do so. If you receive this email
by mistake, please inform the person who sent it at the above address and
then delete the email from your system. Durham County Council takes
reasonable precautions to ensure that its emails are virus free. However, we
do not accept responsibility for any losses incurred as a result of viruses
we might transmit and recommend that you should use your own virus checking
procedures.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
     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 messages please send to the list
owner
              [log in to unmask]
  Full help Desk - please email [log in to unmask] describing your
needs
        To receive these emails in HTML format send the command:
         SET data-protection HTML to [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 messages please send to the list owner
              [log in to unmask]
  Full help Desk - please email [log in to unmask] describing your needs
        To receive these emails in HTML format send the command:
         SET data-protection HTML to [log in to unmask]
   (all commands go to [log in to unmask] not the list please)
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^