The ODPA intends to start to pursue the most serious cases of registration non-compliance through the Magistrate’s Court Petty Debt process, to ensure registration and recover costs of £50 for organisations with less than 50 staff and £2,000 for others.
Emma Martins, the Bailiwick’s Data Protection Commissioner, said it would be reluctantly pursuing legal action, but felt it had to do so.
‘Registration is a legal requirement,’ she said.
‘Most people wouldn’t dream of driving without a valid licence. So, by the same token, no-one should be handling people’s personal information without first registering with the ODPA.
‘Organisations need to take their legal responsibilities seriously and individuals have the right to expect them to do so. I would, without question, prefer the limited resources we have to be used to support our community to get data protection right, but it would be entirely unfair on all those who engage positively with their legal duties
for us to ignore the small number that do not.’
The first step in legal action will be for a letter to be sent to a small number of non-compliance cases as a first step in a formal debt recovery process. Anyone who has received a previous communication regarding non-registration is urged to contact the authority to prevent further action being taken.
It is a legal requirement for any organisation (including sole traders) that handles people’s personal information during the course of their business activities – even if this is just names and addresses – to register with the ODPA.
This registration takes place in January and February every year. Registration costs £50 for organisations with fewer than 50 staff and £2,000 for those with more. Charities and non-profits register free of charge. Most of the regulated community take their responsibilities very seriously and understand the value of people’s personal data, as well as the potential harm if it is not handled properly.
The ODPA does have enforcement powers under the Data Protection (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2017.
‘Predicting and preventing harm by encouraging the responsible use of personal information is vital to achieve the
best possible outcomes in our society,’ it said.
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