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£250k fine for dumping council workers' files in Tesco bins, er, binned

But does this mean a change to ICO enforcement policy? Legal bod investigates

How do a trigger event and a contravention differ?

Before going further, it is important to explain that the tribunal had to differentiate between the “trigger event” and the “contravention”. For the tribunal, the “trigger event” occurred several times (ie, each time a supermarket recycling bin was used) however the “contravention” of the Act was the lack of data processor supervision.

The tribunal, however, had difficulty in establishing the consequences of the lack of data processor supervision (ie, finding evidence that “such a contravention would be of a kind likely to cause substantial damage or substantial distress”).

Indeed the tribunal stated that “Focusing on the contravention we have been unable to construct a likely chain of events which would lead to substantial damage or substantial distress”.

Of course it was possible to imagine some untoward consequences of data processor supervision (eg, the Press publishing certain details); however what was “possible” did not pass the threshold of “likely”. In further detail, the reasons for the tribunal’s difficulty are:

  • First the items of personal data being recycled were details associated with staff pensions – “typically… a name, an address, date of birth, national insurance number and salary. In some cases the files contained bank account details, a signature, a nominee to receive benefits”. In other words there was no sensitive personal data involved, the implication being that the tribunal might have come to a different conclusion if say, medical records originating from a health professional were disposed of in the same way.
  • Secondly, even though the supermarket’s recycling bin was in a public place, it is difficult to retrieve files from such a bin if the bin is not overflowing (retrieval was possible in the Scottish Borders case for a few data subjects). This accounts for the statement in the tribunal's decision that of all the consequences that could follow from the contravention, the most likely outcome for the majority of data subjects would be the destruction of their manual records (albeit not in a guaranteed secure way).
  • Thirdly, the tribunal considered it was fair only to consider the contraventions from the date of the commencement of the Monetary Penalty provisions (6 April 2010); this meant that the contravention only related to about 1,600 data subjects in total (and in relation to those files which could be retrieved from overflowing recycling bins, a much smaller number – at a guess, of the order of a 100 data subjects or so).

In summary, any actual data loss was limited to a few data subjects and did not involve sensitive personal data. No evidence of substantial distress could be adduced as being ”likely” from the time after when the MPN was introduced. However, the contravention involving the unsupervised data processor had occurred for years. Hence, as the MPN thresholds were not reached, the Enforcement Notice became the only game in town.

Unlawful processing?

I think Scottish Borders was successful in its MPN appeal because of two reasons:

  • the facts in the case happened to be fortuitous, and
  • the ICO’s case was limited to the issue of data processor supervision.

With respect to the latter, the limitation to data processor supervision is a consequence of the ICO’s neglect of the link between the common law of confidence and lawful processing; something which in the context of the processing of confidential personal data has yet to be remedied.

For instance, I am sure that you would agree that pension details relating to the financial affairs of data subjects are subject to an obligation of confidence, and the disposal of these confidential details in the “Scottish Borders way” sits uneasily with such an obligation.

So instead of the current case based on just the data processor obligations of the Seventh Principle, the ICO could have focused “unlawful” processing as part of the MPN.

He could have thus argued the MPN in terms of a substantial breach of the First and Seventh Principles; the First Principle in terms that confidential personal data have to be processed “lawfully” with due regard to the common law of confidence, whereas the Seventh Principle requires “appropriate organisational and technical measures” to guard against “unlawful processing” (ie, a breach of the obligation of confidence”).

Note that with this change of emphasis, the case widens the grounds. The actual case was linked to the supervision of a data processor whereas a “lawfulness” case would be linked to all appropriate organisational and technical measures linked to processing of the confidential personal data.

In other words, when the ICO is considering whether a MPN should be served, on the grounds of “lawfulness” his investigation would be far wider; it would allow Scottish Borders approach to data protection and the processing of confidential personal data to be assessed across a range of issues (ie, all relevant organisational and technical measures to assess their appropriateness).

So in the actual case before the tribunal, the narrow confines of data processor supervision (or lack of it) was the only factor under consideration. By contrast, in a “lawfulness” approach, the lack of data processor supervision would be one consideration in many.

This story originally appeared at HAWKTALK, the blog of Amberhawk Training Ltd.

* The Seventh Principle requires “appropriate organisational and technical measures” to guard against “unlawful processing”.

References

Scottish Borders MPN Tribunal Reference EA/2012/0212 (PDF)

The ICO can deal with breaches of confidence as unlawful processing.

Scottish Borders council press release.

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