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A former Health Advisor has been convicted of six counts of unlawfully obtaining personal data, in breach of s170 of the Data Protection Act 2018. The Magistrates’ Court ordered him to pay £250 in compensation to each of 14 data subjects, upon his guilty plea.
The data subjects were patients of South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust. The defendant, employed by the Trust, accessed those patients’ medical records without good reason. It has been reported in the press that the 14 patients were known personally to the defendant.
S170 creates the offences of knowingly or recklessly (without the consent of the controller) obtaining or disclosing personal data, procuring the disclosure of personal data to another person, or retaining personal data lawfully accessed. Prosecutions under the Data Protection Act 2018 are rare: this is the only prosecution with which the ICO reports it has been involved in the past twelve months.
A monthly data protection bulletin from the barristers at 5 Essex Chambers
The Data Brief is edited by Francesca Whitelaw KC, Aaron Moss and John Goss, barristers at 5 Essex Chambers, with contributions from the whole information law, data protection and AI Team.