HSC given three months to improve data requests

Health and Social Care (HSC) has been ordered to improve how it responds to requests for records of personal data within three months.

The order comes from the Office of the Data Protection Authority (ODPA) which investigated HSC's response after a member of the public complained about only receiving partial records.

In a statement, the ODPA said it found HSC failed to consider all relevant filing systems and electronic databases when searching for the information and failed to meet a deadline in the authority's investigation.

HSC said the data access department was under "immense pressure" as requests have "more than doubled over the last two years", but added that it takes the ODPA's findings "seriously".

The ODPA said HSC is obliged to provide a person with full personal records and failing to do so means the person is unable to fully understand how their data is being used.

HSC was "reprimanded" by the ODPA for failing to comply with an information notice issued by the authority within the required time period as part of the investigation.

"This is the second public statement by the authority relating to a matter where information was missed by HSC in a subject access request, and deadlines were not met," the ODPA said.

As a result of the findings, the OPDA has ordered HSC to identify all filing systems and electronic databases needed for personal information requests.

It also gave HSC three months to improve how it responds to information requests.

A spokesperson for HSC said: "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 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."

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