Legal Obligations
Consultation
Data Protection
The Data Protection Act 1998 came in to force in March
2001. At the Council, the Information Compliance Officer is
responsible for ensuring that data protection issues are managed in
accordance with the Act, and it is essential that officers
understand the Act’s requirements from the outset of any
consultation process.
The main thrust of the Act is that when you collect personal
data about people you must process it fairly and safeguard it
properly. You must also tell people what you are going to do
with their data and also, if they ask, give them access to what you
have collected.
The Act applies whenever data capable of identifying an
individual is collected: name, address, telephone number, benefits
reference number, etc.
Freedom of Information
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 is intended to promote the
openness of public organisations by providing people with the right
of access to information that public organisations hold.
In order to comply with the Act the Council must
1. Adopt a
publication scheme about the information that it routinely makes
available and how it can be obtained.
2. Comply with
requests for the information that it holds unless that information
is exempt for the Act. This information should normally be
made available within 20 working days.
