Can I share Information?
Probably.
Sorry if this is not the answer you wanted to hear, but the decision to supply information to someone outside your organisation needs to be justified and there can no blanket answer.
Generally speaking, there tends only to be issues when you are thinking about sharing information which identifies an individual person, either directly e.g. you tell someone their name, or indirectly. For example, if you share information about a problem with the postmaster at "a post office" in a small rural village, even without naming names it would not take a trained detective to work out who it was, if there is only one post office in that village!
Section 115 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 provides for a statutory authority to consider disclosure of information whenever it is necessary or expedient for purposes of that Act. However the Common Law presumption of confidentiality will still apply and this means that in every case you must make an objective assessment of the facts. You must also consider the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, the Human Rights Act 1998 Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 and Freedom of Information Act 2000.
A lot to consider, but in essence providing you can justify there was a genuine need to share personal information about someone in order to prevent crime, disorder or to protect someone from serious harm, or for any purpose listed in the Crime and Disorder Act, then you are probably quite right to do so.
Once you have decided there is a need to share information you will need to consider if it is appropriate to seek the consent of the subject of the information first. You also need to consider just how much information will be needed to be shared and for how long. Finally, how that information is actually sent to another organisation, for example passing something over the internet is not generally regarded as secure enough.
So, no easy answers unfortunately, but just remember the common sense approach try asking yourself, if I did not share this information what would the likely consequences be? More often than not that simple test will help justify in your own mind the need to share information.
All the main agencies and partners who have an interest in delivering community safety and crime reduction have signed, or are about to, an over arching Information Sharing Protocol which sets out in some detail what is mentioned above. Find out who in your organisation has been identified as a "Designated Officer" under the Protocol and seek their advice.
Remember if you have got this far, you are probably half way there to justifying a need to share information, you just need to think carefully, and as a last thought: make sure you record your reasons for disclosing personal information and just as importantly, for not disclosing it, if that is what you have decided. |
