I Spy…monitoring employees

There are many reasons why employers may wish to monitor the activities of their employees. However, irrespective of the motive there is a need to ensure that any monitoring undertaken complies with the requirements of three relatively new statutes - the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Human Rights Act 1998 - as well as some secondary legislation. In the concluding part of her article, Anna Fletcher, an associate at Wragge & Co, considers the implications of the Data Protection Act 1998, the Data Protection Code of Practice and the Human Rights Act.

Anna Fletcher can be contacted on tel: +44 (0) 121 213 2375; email anna_fletcher@wragge.com

Data Protection Act 1998 and Data Protection Act Code of Practice

The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) now extends not only to computer-based but also to manually-based records. There is nothing in the DPA that prohibits monitoring. In fact the Data Protection Principles provide a series of tests that employers must satisfy when processing data which has been collected.