Responsibility for Freedom of Information, Data Protection and Data Sharing rests with the Information Rights Division of the Department for Constitutional Affairs, which is part of the Department's Constitution Directorate.
The data sharing team is developing policy that strikes a balance between personal privacy and the needs of public authorities to share personal data in the delivery of public services. We are doing this by:
Providing guidance to the public sector on when they can and cannot share personal information
Providing guidance to the public sector on best practice in information handling; in particular, on producing data sharing protocols
Talking to people to find out more about their views on privacy and data sharing
Consulting the public and public sector on how best to let people know about their rights over their personal information and how it is protected.
Working with stakeholders to consider whether legislation is needed to facilitate data sharing and, if so, what form it should take.
A public service guarantee for data handling is now available for implementation by public bodies. This sets out people's rights with regard to how their personal data is handled by public authorities and the standards they can expect public organisations to adhere to.
We have produced a tool kit for the public sector that includes guidance and examples of good practice on information handling, such as data sharing protocols. We will continue to add to the tool kit until it contains a complete set of guidance on whether to data share and how to do it with the maximum respect for people's privacy.
The then Lord Chancellor's Department published the consultation document, How can the Public Sector provide people with information on, and increase confidence in, the way it handles personal information? inviting views by 27 June 2003 on proposals for a document setting out the standards people can expect the public sector to adhere to when handling their personal information. An analysis of the responses received during the consultation was published on 21 November 2003.
The Department commissioned a MORI survey in July, in collaboration with Liberty, the Consumers' Association and the Information Commissioner, to gauge public opinion on privacy when personal information is shared by public authorities to improve services. The report giving the survey results is published here: Privacy and Data Sharing - Survey of Public Awareness and Perceptions.
The Department has worked in partnership with other interested stakeholders to develop guidance on how data-sharing should operate within the existing legal framework. The legal guidance was published on 24 November 2003.
We have been collecting examples of best practice to include in our tool kit, such as guidance to staff on information handling and data-sharing protocols. We would welcome further examples of information handling documentation that you or your organisation use or are developing in this field.
We would also welcome details of instances where public bodies believe that existing legislation prevents data-sharing and so hampers delivery of improved services, so that we can consider how best to take specific issues forward.
Please send the documents to the Policy Branch at the address given for the Department's data-sharing Helpline in the contact details part of this site.
On 11 April 2002 the Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU) at the Cabinet Office published a report entitled "Privacy and Data-sharing: The way forward for public services". The twin objectives of the report wereto improve public services through better use of personal data: and to secure public trust in the handling of personal data by safeguarding personal privacy.
The report resulted from a project steered by an Advisory Group including the Information Commissioner, Liberty, the National Consumer Council, academics and government departments.
In line with its existing responsibilities for privacy, data protection, human rights and freedom of information the Department for Constitutional Affairs, formerly the Lord Chancellor's Department, has assumed overall responsibility for championing and overseeing implementation of the conclusions of the report and the outcome of the consultation process.
Strategy
The report also sets out a five-point strategy, detailed in 25 recommendations, for achieving these objectives:
building public trust in the way that public services handle personal data;
ensuring that the data used by public services meets high standards of accuracy, integrity and is up-to-date;
using technology more effectively to deliver more secure, more joined-up public services;
improving the management of information and personal data in the public sector and ensuring greater consistency in the way that data are handled; and
achieving greater clarity over how the law regulates data-sharing and consulting on options for legislative change.
Three of the recommendations in the report were subject to a consultation process which ended on 12 July 2002.
They were:
the development and adoption of a Public Services Trust Charter for the handling of personal information by public services (Recommendation 1),
the introduction of legislation to enable public bodies to share information with the consent of the data subject (Recommendation 24);
the establishment of data-sharing gateways through secondary legislation, including gateways for data-sharing without consent in specified circumstances (Recommendation 25).
A breakdown of the responses to the consultation has been published: Analysis of responses to the consultation on the Performance and Innovation Unit report "Privacy and Data-sharing: the way forward for public services"