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Requests to States for personal data on the rise

Requests to States for personal data on the rise

Monday 23 December 2024

Requests to States for personal data on the rise

Monday 23 December 2024


Bailiwick Law Enforcement has received significantly more data access requests than any other States body this year.

Figures requested by Express show that the number of 'Subject Access Requests' received by the States relating to the police or customs has rocketed this year, compared to 2022 and 2023.

SARs are where individuals ask what personal data a controller holds about them and why.

Individuals made 121 SARs to Bailiwick Law Enforcement between 1 January and 13 December 2024, compared to 52 and 86 during the whole of 2022 and 2023 respectively.

Home Affairs, which oversees Bailiwick Law Enforcement, received 24 SARs this year compared to 22 last year and 18 the year before.

data access requests

Pictured: Data received by Express showing how many subject access requests are submitted to different States departments.

Health and Social Care had to deal with 101 SARs by 13 December this year - the second highest received by any States body.

That is an increase of 16 from last year, and an increase of 68 from 2022.

Other committees such as the States Trading Supervisory Board and Economic Development only received two each - presumably because their work does not directly relate to individuals as with health and policing.

Screenshot_2024-12-20_at_12.56.13.png

Pictured: HSC has been reprimanded for its data protection failures this year.

The increased demand placed on civil servants responding to SARs has resulted in a number of reprimands for States bodies since the data protection law was introduced in 2016.

Earlier this month the Revenue Service was reprimanded for a data breach which saw individuals personal details sent to the wrong person.

HSC was reprimanded last month for a second breach relating to the same area of the law, said the Office for the Data Protection Authority.

The Authority said it has concerns that this is the second order against HSC requiring improvements in processes relating to data subject access requests. 

“We accept the findings of the ODPA," said a spokesperson for HSC at the time, in response to the ODPA's statement. 

"It is a matter that we take seriously, and we are proactively working on the recommendations as part of health and social care transformation as well as our cycle of continuous improvement.

“While we recognise that it is important for data subjects to get information in a timely manner it would be remiss of us not to highlight the immense pressure HSC is under in this area, as the volume of Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs) has more than doubled over the last two years.

"These requests are often particularly complex and span an individual’s entire lifetime.

"We are reviewing how to meet this demand going forward, including expanding our resource capability to best meet our legal obligations”.

READ MORE...

HSC breaches data rules, again

Reprimand for the Revenue Service

HSC Data Protection concerns addressed

HSC reprimanded over data protection shortcomings

Health prevented family from finding out about abuse of vulnerable family member 

HSC formally reprimanded for non-compliance with data request

Health data breaches increase 

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