HC Deb 02 July 1998 vol 315 cc592-3
Mr. Hoon

I beg to move amendment No. 83, in page 18, line 47, at end insert— '(1A) The Secretary of State may by order exempt from the subject information provisions, or modify those provisions in relation to—

  1. (a) personal data in respect of which the data controller is the proprietor of, or a teacher at, a school, and which consist of information relating to persons who are or have been pupils at the school, or
  2. (b) personal data in respect of which the data controller is an education authority in Scotland, and which consist of information relating to persons who are receiving, or have received, further education provided by the authority.'

Mr. Deputy Speaker

With this, it will be convenient to discuss Government amendments Nos. 84 to 91 and the Government new schedule.

Mr. Hoon

Amendments Nos. 83 to 91 and new schedule 1 complete an exercise that was begun in Standing Committee. The Government tabled amendments to bring within the scope of the Bill the records currently covered by the Access to Personal Files Act 1987 and the Access to Health Records Act 1990. The main purpose was to ensure that the arrangements made by the Bill to give effect to the European Court judgment in the case of Gaskin applied to the records covered by the 1987 and 1990 Acts.

The Gaskin judgment deals with subject access requests that are refused because giving the information would identify third parties who have not consented. The judgment says that there must be an independent mechanism for reviewing such refusals. The Bill provides that mechanism by allowing data subjects to go to the commissioner or the courts in such cases.

The purpose of the amendments is to ensure that the judgment is adhered to in the case of records under the Education (School Records) Regulations 1989 and the corresponding Scotland and Northern Ireland legislation. Such records are held by schools on pupils and former pupils. The new schedule gives rights of access to information held in certain unstructured manual records, to which the provisions of the Bill would not otherwise apply. The amendments will bring those records within the scope of the Bill, and thereby give effect to the Gaskin judgment. I hope that the House agrees that the amendments serve a useful and important purpose.

Mr. Greenway

The Gaskin judgment required the Government to introduce a range of amendments to the Bill, most of which were dealt with in Committee. As the Minister said, these are the outstanding amendments. I hope that, when the Bill returns to the other place, they will be accepted as speedily and as graciously as they have been by the Opposition parties tonight and in Committee.

Amendment agreed to.

Amendment made: No. 84, in page 19, line 16, at end insert— '() In this section— education authority" and "further education" have the same meaning as in the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 ("the 1980 Act"), and proprietor"—

  1. (a) in relation to a school in England or Wales, has the same meaning as in the Education Act 1996,
  2. (b) in relation to a school in Scotland, means—
    1. (i) in the case of a self-governing school, the board of management within the meaning of the Self-Governing Schools etc. (Scotland) Act 1989,
    2. (ii) in the case of an independent school, the proprietor within the meaning of the 1980 Act,
    3. (iii) in the case of a grant aided school, the managers within the meaning of the 1980 Act, and
    4. (iv) in the case of a public school, the education authority within the meaning of the 1980 Act, and
  3. (c) in relation to a school in Northern Ireland, has the same meaning as in the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 and includes, in the case of a controlled school, the Board of Governors of the school.'.—[Mr. Hoon.]

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