From Amberhawk
I have often moaned (and moaned) about the fact that the Commissioner does not do “lawful” processing (see references). However, a stinging judgment in the “Solicitors from Hell” case (which mainly rebuked the Commissioner for his interpretation of the “domestic purpose” exemption), a key passage stated the following re the issue of lawful processing under the Data Protection Act (DPA):So on this argument as the NFI and numerous councils are not processing personal data within the NFI in accordance with council tax discount law, it is a breach of the DPA.
... "The DPA does envisage that the Information Commissioner should consider what it is acceptable for one individual to say about another, because the First Data Protection Principle requires that data should be processed lawfully. The authoritative statements of the law are to be found not only in the cases cited in this judgment (including para 16 above), but also by the Court of Appeal in Campbell v MGN Ltd [2002] EWCA Civ 1373 [2003] QB 633 paras [72] to [138], and in other cases. As Patten J made clear in Murray, where the DPA applies, if processing is unlawful by reason of it breaching the general law of confidentiality (and thus any other general law) there will be a contravention of the First Data Protection Principle within the meaning of s.40(1), and a breach of s.4(4) of the DPA”…
