Data Protection
Accessing Third Party Data
In this section
- Carers requesting information on behalf of someone
- Families requesting 'joint' information
- Guardians requesting information about children in their care
- Requests from 'Litigation Friends''
- Parents requesting information about their children
- Solicitors requesting information on behalf of a client
The Data Protection Act 1998 provides individuals with a right to access the personal information that Devon County Council holds about them. This is known as the right of 'Subject Access'.
Whilst individuals can request their own personal information, the act provides an exemption from this right for third party information. Therefore before Devon County Council can release third party information, we will require either the explicit consent of the party concerned, or proof of legal entitlement.
Examples of the sorts of request that we receive for thirds party data includes;
Where carers are requesting information on behalf of someone under their care, we would request to receive the explicit consent of the individual concerned to release this information to the individual. Where the indivdual concerned is unable to give consent owing t to deminished mental capacity, we would require proof of legal entitlement. Examples of such include power of attorney (Enduring Power of Attorney for access to financial information about the client, or Lasting Power of Attorney for access to further information).
More information about power of attorney is available from the Direct.gov.
In some instances, husbands and wives will request information pursuant to an entire family. In such instances, we will require the consent of each family member to release information. Furthermore, we will require proof of identity for members concerned. Where consent is not possible owing to deminished mental capacity, we will require additional proof of legal entitlement (such as power of attorney).
There will be times when children will not reside with their natural parents and as such their nominated carers will not have parental responsibility over the chilren. Before we can release the personal information of the child in question, we would require either the consent of the child to release their information (if over 12 years old) or a copy of a legal residency order. For more information please contact the Information Governance team.
In such circumstances, we would normally require proof of parental responsibility over the children concerned, such as a copy of a birth certificate. For fathers who are requesting this information, we would require either a valid birth certificate where the father is named, or a copy of a marriage certificate in which the father can demonstrate that he was married to the mother at the time of the childs birth.
For children over the age of 12 years old, Devon County Council would normally require consent from the child concerned for the release of their information.
Where individuals appoint a litigation friend for the purposes of liaising with solicitors, Devon County Council will still require the explicit consent of the individuals concerned before we can release their personal information to third parties. Where consent is not possible owing to deminished capacity, we would require additional proof of legal entitlement such as power of attorney. Further advice is available from the Information Governance team.
In such instances we would normally request to receive consent to disclose personal information to a solicitor from the solicitors client. We would ask that such consent is explicit.
