Data Protection

Information about the Data Protection Act 1998 and how it applies to accessing personal records.

The Data Protection Act 1998 came into force on 1 March 2000.

It sets rules for processing personal information and includes paper records as well as those held electronically.

The Data Protection Act applies to data about identifiable living individuals.

Organisations who decide how and why personal data are processed are known as data controllers, and they must comply with the rules of good information handling (the data protection principles) and the other requirements of the Data Protection Act.

All those working for the data controller, and processing personal data, are known as data processors and have a statutory obligation to comply with the DP Act.

The rules of good information handling – the principles

Anyone processing personal data must comply with the 8 enforceable principles of good practice. They say that data must be:-

fairly and lawfully processed
processed for limited purposes and not in any manner incompatible with those purposes
adequate, relevant and not excessive
accurate
not kept for longer than necessary
processed in line with the data subject’s rights
held securely
not transferred to countries without adequate protection

Personal data covers both facts and opinions about the individual, it also includes information regarding the intentions of the data controller towards the individual.

The Data Protection Act makes specific provision for the collection and processing of sensitive personal data.

Sensitive data includes:

racial or ethnic origin
political opinions
religious or other beliefs
trade union membership
health
sex life
criminal proceedings or convictions.

Sensitive data can only be collected and processed under strict conditions. These include:-

having the explicit consent of the individual
being required by law to process the data for employment purposes
needing to process the information in order to protect the vital interests of the data subject
dealing with the administration of justice or legal proceedings

Individual Rights

The DP Act gives rights to individuals in respect of personal data held about them by others, these are:-

right of subject access
right to prevent processing likely to cause damage or distress
right to prevent processing for the purposes of direct marketing
rights in relation to automated decision taking
right to take action for compensation if the individual suffers damage by any contravention of the Act by the data controller
right to take action to rectify, block, erase or destroy inaccurate data
right to make a request to the Information Commissioner for an assessment to be made as to whether any provision of the DP Act has been contravened

Subject Access Requests

If a member of the public asks for subject access (a copy of all their personal data held by the Authority), the request will be referred to the Information Officer:

David Akehurst
Reigate & Banstead BC
Town Hall, Castlefield Road
Reigate, RH2 0SH
Telephone: 01737 276141
Email: david.akehurst@reigate-banstead.gov.uk

A fee of £10 is charged for this service to cover administration costs.

Data Protection Policy

You can view the same document here in either Word or PDF format:

Last updated: 24-04-2008

Top

Reigate & Banstead Borough Council
Town Hall
Castlefield Road
Reigate
RH2 0SH
01737 276000
customer.services@reigate-banstead.gov.uk

Reigate and Banstead Borough Council is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Help with PDFs

Some pages link to PDF documents. If you have trouble viewing PDFs, get help with pdfs.