Education Update - Data Protection
Published: 18th December 2009
With effect from April 2010 the Secretary of State will be able to increase the maximum penalty for an offence under the Data Protection Act 1998 s55 (Unlawful obtaining, etc., of personal data) to 2 year's imprisonment for a conviction on indictment or 12 months imprisonment on summary conviction.
A consultation document on the detail was issued on 15 October 2009 by the Ministry of Justice. The document says that:
"the Government..... believes it is necessary to introduce the increased penalties available to the courts for three reasons:
- (i) to provide a greater deterrent to those who seek to knowingly or recklessly obtain, disclose or procure the disclosure of personal data without the consent of the data controller or sell or offer to sell personal data obtained in that way;
- (ii) to provide public reassurances that those who are successfully prosecuted may, depending on the gravity of the offence, be sent to jail; and
- (iii) to achieve parity of approach across a number of disparate pieces of legislation which deal with similar types of offences."
