UK: Data Protection – Consultation on Draft Statutory Guidance

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has launched a public consultation on its draft Statutory guidance, which sets out how it will regulate and enforce data protection legislation in the UK, including how it calculates fines.

The draft statutory guidance seeks to:

• Set out the nature of the ICO’s statutory powers and to be clear and consistent about when and how these powers will be used;

• Ensure that the ICO takes fair, proportionate and timely regulatory action to ensure that individuals’ information rights are properly protected.

The consultation closes on 12 November 2020.

Practical Point

The guidance will provide greater clarity on the ICO’s approach to issuing information notices, assessment notices, enforcement notices and penalty notices.

An H&M service centre in Germany has been fined €35 million by the German authorities for a breach of the GDPR. Managers conducted “welcome back” talks with employees after their return from sick leave and holidays. The employees’ symptoms and diagnoses of their illnesses, as well as their holiday experiences, were then documented so they could be read by the managers: https://ico.org.uk/media/about-the-ico/consultations/2618333/ico-draft-statutory-guidance.pdf and https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/ico-and-stakeholder-consultations/ico-consultation-on-the-draft-statutory-guidance/.

For more information on these articles or any other issues involving labour and employment matters in the United Kingdom, please contact Robert Hill (Partner) at Clyde & Co at robert.hill@clydeco.com or visit www.clydeco.com.