Freedom of Information and Data Protection

The Freedom of Information Acts 1997 and 2003, effective from 21 April 1998, establishes new statutory rights:

• a right for each person to access information held by public bodies;
• a right for each person to have official information relating to him/herself amended where it is incomplete, incorrect or misleading;
• a right to obtain reasons for decisions affecting him/herself.

The Data Protection Act, 1988 and the Data Protection (Amendment) Act 2003 confers on every person the right:

• to determine whether computerised personal data are held which relate to him/her, and, if such data are held, a right to be given a description of the data and the purposes for which they are kept (response to be given within 21 days of request);
• to be supplied with a copy of such data (response to be given within 40 days of request); and
• to have such data amended or erased if they are incorrectly or improperly held.