Data Protection Law
What are your responsbilities to ensure Data Protection?
All employers have responsibilities to ensure their employees' personal details are respected and properly protected. The data protection act requires all organisations that hold information to follow a number of important principles regarding privacy and disclosure. The Act also allows people to find out what personal information is held about them. With the increase in electronic data storage and communication it is increasingly important that organisations are clear what information they are holding and how they are protecting it.
The data protection act affects small businesses in a number of ways. It is important for small businesses to consider the data protection law when they are recruiting people, as the information they are gathering about applicants will need to be protected. How a small business keeps its employment records is also covered by the act, with certain rules on disclosure of information to others and the rights of employees to know what information is being kept on them. There are also rules about how businesses can monitor employees at work. While the act doesn’t prevent monitoring, it does set out some principles for the gathering and use of personal information. In addition to these considerations, if a business keeps information about an employees health then they must be able to satisfy one of the ‘sensitive data conditions’.
Full information on the Data Protection Act is available at the information commissioners website which can be found here: http://www.ico.gov.uk/Home/for_organisations/topic_specific_guides/employment.aspx