Data privacy: subject access - the Information Commissioner's draft Code of Practice

The Information Commissioner's Office (the ICO) is consulting on a new Code of Practice (the Code) concerning the right of individuals to make a subject access request under section 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the DPA).

Whilst subject access requests can be submitted by consumers and other data subjects they are commonly used by employee data subjects as a way of obtaining pre-action disclosure in work place disputes. In this article we consider how the draft Code and recent case law will impact the way that employers respond to such requests.