Child protection professionals have welcomed new amendments by the House of Commons this week which will bring clarity around how they can process and share sensitive personal information relating to physical and mental health, sex life and criminal allegations, relating to children at risk, or persons of interest who might pose a risk.
Although the legal profession has always advised clients that safeguarding concerns should take precedence over data protection issues, it has been a grey area, requiring clarity in the statute. This looks likely to change when the final text of the Data Protection Bill is agreed, and brought into law as a new UK Data Protection Act 2018 to sit alongside the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Farrer and Co., a leading City legal firm commented:
“Many professionals had assumed that GDPR would make their job harder in terms of child and adult at risk protection. This was perhaps justified in terms of the requirement for additional paperwork – namely, the need to document processing activities and decisions, and create appropriate policy documents around use of “special category” data (although of course this was already good practice). However, the most important decisions around how to allow for uses of personal data in the public interest were always left to Member States to determine. This is where the Data Protection Bill comes in.
The amendment, recently adopted by the House of Commons Public Bill Committee, empowers organisations – in the course of their own activities and judgment – to process personal data for safeguarding purposes lawfully, without consent where appropriate. This will be welcome news for schools, charities and volunteer organisations, religious organisations and sports clubs and governing bodies alike.”
So, the amendment provides welcome clarification around this important area, allowing personal data to be disclosed without consent where it is in the substantial public interest and is necessary to protect a child or adult at risk from physical, mental or emotional harm.