Upcoming Events :
Housing Seminar: Partnerships with the Public Sector – Avoiding the pitfalls
Thu 31 May 2012
Minerva House, 5 Montague Close, London, SE1 9BB
ICO: Paper records must be kept secure
Wed 13 Apr 2011
Public sector bodies have been urged not to overlook the need to safeguard paper records.
According to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), "significant weaknesses" in data handling procedures have been identified at several state-run organisations.
This, it said, includes a number of papers containing sensitive pieces of data.
Groups in the public sector have therefore been urged to make sure their policies for managing paper records are "robust" and comparable to the safeguards they have on electronic data systems.
Sally Anne Poole, acting head of enforcement at the ICO, insisted that the protection of information "must be taken seriously", regardless of what format it is being stored in.
The organisation recently had to take action against two healthcare bodies after separate incidents in which paper documents containing sensitive personal data were lost.
James Oxley, solicitor at Winckworth Sherwood LLP, commented: "With the ICO showing it is quite content to use its new powers to fine organisations for serious breaches of the Data Protection Act 1998, it is now not only bad publicity that organisations need to be concerned about if their records management is poor.
"Winckworth Sherwood has considerable experience in advising both public and private sector organisations on all matters relating the Data Protection Act 1998 and mitigating risk."
This comes after the ICO advised councillors who deal with personal data that they must be registered as data controllers, as this is a legal requirement.
