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GAZETTE
SEPTEMBER 1987
Commissioners or pursuant to a
court order, the Central Statistics
Office, or for anonymous statistical
purposes; or between public bodies
in certain cases.
The Bill broadly followed the
principles of the European
Convention for the Protection of
the Individual with regard to
Automatic Processing of Data. The
exception is that the Bill did not
require strong security measures
against outside access or alteration
of files, or their accidental or un-
authorised destruction. This
features in all the existing European
data protection legislation, and is
one of the factors in the push for
new laws here.
Also, the Bill did not provide for
the establishment of a regulatory
authority, or for any system of
registration or licensing of personal
data holders. The Swedish Data
Privacy Act 1973, which was the
first legislation in this area in
Europe, is administered by a 'Data
Inspection Board'. This employs
about 30 people and handles com-
plaints as well as licensing users.
The Act was amended in 1979 so
that licences were only required for
holders of sensitive information,
such as medical or criminal records.
The Freedom of Information Bill
(1985) sought to make breaches of
its requirements a criminal offence.
All the comparable European legis-
lation include sanctions, and the
UK Data Protection Act (1984)
makes it clear that compensation
may be awarded by a court for loss
or damage resulting from passing
on incorrect personal data.
We are fortunate in having a
decade of experience in over ten
countries when it comes to
drawing up Ireland's data pro-
tection legislation. Whether it
comes from the business com-
munity or the civil liberties lobby,
it seems that laws to prevent
personal data abuses — intentional
or otherwise — are firmly on the
legislators' agenda. We await the
early re-introduction of a Freedom
of Information Bill.
•
Law Society Family Law Seminar — 10 October, 1987
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