IHTM02022 | Communications: Legislation: Data Protection Act 1984

The 1984 Data Protection Act gave new legal rights to individuals whose personal information is held on computer.

It is an offence to hold personal data on computer for a purpose not entered in the Data Protection Register.

The Act also imposes obligations on HMRC and its staff as recorders and users of personal data.

The Department must register with the Data Protection Register

• all computer systems that deal with personal data

• the uses to which it puts that data

Details of the Department’s Register entries are available to senior managers. You, as a staff member, may be personally liable to prosecution if you knowingly or recklessly

• use

• obtain

• disclose, or

• transfer

personal data for a purpose that is not registered or if you disclose personal data without the proper authority.