Christopher Graham, Information Commissioner, has collaborated with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to produce a new guidance note for the public sector on the interplay between equality duties and data protection Advice for public authorities is now available as a downloadable guidance document at the EHRC website. Although the guidance is aimed at public authorities it may also prove useful reading for those who regularly provide data to public authorities and indeed to those citizens whose data is held. At a relatively snappy 11 pages it is fairly easy reading and sets out a summary of the public sector equality duty and general and specific duties. It then links those duties with the data protection 8 principles of good information handling which again are set out in summary form. It finally concludes with some essential tips for staying within the law and adopting good practice. Some of the key tips apply to all who collect and process data including:-
- Before collecting information, be clear about what you need to collect and how you will use it.
- Collect and retain only the minimum amount of personal information that is required and be prepared to justify why it is needed.
- Review personal information regularly to check whether it is still needed for monitoring purposes (or indeed any other relevant purposes).
- Put in place a policy explaining how long personal information should be kept, how it will be disposed of and procedures for secure disposal.
- Put in place a clear security policy and check it is followed and kept up to date.
- Make sure that only staff members who need to view personal information are given access to it and that they are trained how to use it properly.
For those public authorities and others interested the guidance document is available at the EHRC website at http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/
