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Data Protection - registration |
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Is your firm registered under the Data Protection Act 1998? If it is not,
then it should be. The Information Commissioner takes the view that it
will be almost impossible for a solicitor’s firm to show that it does not
process personal data (and so is exempt from registration). Even a PC-free
firm (if such a thing still exists) would almost certainly come within
the scope of the Act, since it also covers information held in manual
filing systems.
You can access the register online, so it is easy to check whether your firm
is registered (or whether a firm that you are in dispute with is registered!);
see www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk. One important point to note is
that there is a common misapprehension that registration is a one-off affair
(ie once you have registered, then that registration remains valid
indefinitely). That is wrong, and annual registration is required (£35), which
can be done online.
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December 2006 |
