The EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (GDPR) comes into force on 25 May 2018 and replaces the Data Protection Act 1998. The changes introduced by the GDPR amount to the biggest reform of data protection and privacy law in over two decades.
Schools and academies need to be aware of the forthcoming changes because:
This article focusses on the forthcoming reforms to three key areas of data protection law which will affect schools and academies:
From 25 May 2018, schools and academies will need to be able to demonstrate that they comply with the following data protection principles, which require that personal data is:
There are three key points for schools and academies to take away from the changes to the data protection principles:
Under the GDPR, ‘any public body or authority’ is required to appoint a DPO, but there is no clear-cut guidance as to which institutions qualify as such. Until further guidance is published on this point, all academies (and schools which are already subject to Freedom of Information Act legislation) should assume they will be required to appoint a DPO.
Whilst many schools have already appointed a ‘data protection compliance manager’ or similar, under GDPR, the DPO receives protected employment status and must:
The DPO can either be engaged as an employee or a sub-contractor, and one DPO can act as the DPO for a number of public bodies.
Schools and academies will already be familiar with the right of subject access. This right is changing slightly under the GDPR: a charge can no longer be made for responding to a subject access request (unless particular circumstances apply) and the time for responding to a subject access request is being reduced from 40 days to one calendar month.
The GDPR also grants individuals other additional rights which are outside the scope of this article.
Schools and academies should:
If you are interested in hearing more about the forthcoming changes, please get in touch with the Education team.
We are also providing training seminars on the GDPR to schools and academies in the near future. In the meantime, you can download a copy of our free GDPR brochure using the button below.
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