1st Edition

Information Rights in Practice The Non-legal Professional's Guide

By Alan Stead Copyright 2008
    224 Pages
    by Facet Publishing

    The requirements of the relevant legislation are set out together with examples, flow-charts, and diagrams to illustrate and clarify how to apply the law in practice. This indispensable guide is a one-stop shop for all you need to know about information rights law, using relevant case studies to clarify and illuminate these tricky issues. Contents include:

    • Data Protection Act 1998: definitions of personal data; scope of the Act; the principles; access to personal data and data sharing
    • Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004: scope of the Acts; applications of exemptions/exceptions; public interest tests, publication schemes; disclosure logs and records management
    • Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000
    • Human Rights Act 1998
    • Reuse of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005
    • other non-information rights-related legislation
    • interaction of legislation
    • requests for information.

    Readership: A must-have for anyone working with information rights in public authorities and the private sector, this book is also a useful reference point for legal advisers, academics and students of information rights, as well as media professionals wanting to learn and understand how public authorities approach requests for information and the surrounding procedures.

    1. Data Protection Act 1998 2. Definitions of personal data 3. The scope of the Data Protection Act 4. The data protection principles 5. Access to personal data 6. Data sharing 7. The Freedom of Information Act 2000 and EnvironmentalInformation regulations 2004, SI 2004/3391 8. Scope of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 9. Application of exemptions and exceptions 10. The public interest test 11. Publication schemes 12. Compliance, the Information Commissioner and the Information Tribunal 13. Disclosure logs 14. Records management – Section 46 code of practice 15. Other legislation 16. Interaction of the legislation 17. Summary Appendix 1. Data protection principles Appendix 2. Flow chart of FOI Appendix 3 Exemptions and exceptions under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 Appendix 4. Bibliography and useful web addresses Appendix 5. Published standards for records management.

    Biography

    Alan Stead