Principles of Practice Covering Confidentiality from the Data Protectionact 1998

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SSTL Unit TDA3.1 ( 3.1 and 3.3) 1. Write down the 8 principles of practice covering confidentiality from the Data Protection Act 1998 and a brief summary of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. There are many condensed versions of the eight principles of practice covering confidentiality from the Data Protection Act 2000 but Burnham and Baker (2010 pg 9) sum it up precisely by stating that all ‘information must be: *processed fairly and lawfully *used only for the purpose for which it was gathered *adequate, relevant and not excessive *accurate and kept up to date where necessary *kept for no longer than necessary *processed in line with the individuals rights *kept secure *not transferred outside the European Union without adequate protection. ‘ The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) is a vast publication which was implemented as Law on 1st January 2005.It has been compiled to help increase accountability, openness, transparency and greater access to information held in all public sector organisations and in private companies that have dealings with public authorities. In essence it means that any individual regardless of age, nationality or place of residence has a right by Law, to know what information is held about them within any public sector organisation. (This request would be dealt with under the Data Protection Act as outlined above which ‘dovetails’ into the FOIA.) The FOIA was also designed to help the general public understand more fully how public organisations function, how they make their financial ( and other) decisions; how they spend public money and how they undertake their official tasks and duties.(www.teachernet.gov.uk) The Act seeks to give public access to all recorded information by any public sector organisation on any issue or subject. However not all information may be allowed into the public domain as it may be
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