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An English Court of Appeal Judgement on 8th December 2003, held
that merely mentioning a ‘data subject’ did not ‘necessarily’
amount to ‘personal data’ under the Data Protection
Act.
Mr Michael Durant asked the FSA to disclose his personal data
under Section 7 of the ‘1998 Act.’
The FSA sent his electronically kept files to Mr. Durant as
requested but not the paper documents on the basis that these
documents did not form part of a ‘relevant filing system’.
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Mr
Durant was refused access to this information.
The Courts held that their decision was based not on the meaning
of a ‘relevant filing system’ but on the definition
of ‘personal data’ within the Data Protection Act.
The Court looked to the UK parliamentary intention, which
was to protect privacy of personal data, not documents.
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At the same time, the principal of the European Directives purpose
was to protect privacy and not for excessive demands of information.
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