Anonymous Emails from Subject Access Request

Ian4996

Hi

Quick legal query for anyone in the know: I'm in court in June for an employment tribunal that I've submitted against my former employers for various reasons (which obviously I won't disclose on here).

I put in a subject access request and on Thursday received everything back. There were a lot of emails included about me that I hadn't seen before, that strongly backed up the claims I'm making. However, all the emails have been made anonymous. I can't see who sent any of them or who received any of them.

Is this legitimate?

I've not been able to find an answer on the internet in an hour of searching, and although I am getting solicitors involved, this won't be for a few days............so just wondered if anyone in the know can answer this for me.

Thanks

anamenottaken

Ian4996 wrote: »

Hi

Quick legal query for anyone in the know: I'm in court in June for an employment tribunal that I've submitted against my former employers for various reasons (which obviously I won't disclose on here).

I put in a subject access request and on Thursday received everything back. There were a lot of emails included about me that I hadn't seen before, that strongly backed up the claims I'm making. However, all the emails have been made anonymous. I can't see who sent any of them or who received any of them.

Is this legitimate?

I've not been able to find an answer on the internet in an hour of searching, and although I am getting solicitors involved, this won't be for a few days............so just wondered if anyone in the know can answer this for me.

Thanks

Under the DPA you have been given access to your data as held by them. Under the same Act they are protecting the personal details of the email writers/recipients.

ValHaller

As you have this going to tribunal, you have 2 different routes to getting the emails

• Data Subject Access request arising from the Data Protection Act
• the Discovery Process arising from the Procedure Rules for the tribunal

In the former case, the employer has probably acted correctly in removing names. In the latter case, I believe that you would be entitled to the material unredacted, unless the employer makes an application to provide the information after redaction - but you would have to check.

Which process did you use to get the information?

Ian4996

Valhaller, thanks for that. I sent a normal Subject Access Request (with a £10 cheque) to receive the information.

What's the procedure for using the Discovery Process? I've never heard of it before - but I was assuming there must be a way of getting it revealed who sent the emails - as this may prove crucial in the employment tribunal.

GrannyKate

Hi agree with others here. DPA 1998 does give rights of subject access but also protects to some degree the rights of third parties. Just going on DPA - Without knowing the content it is hard to say whether redaction of names of email senders and recipients was appropriate - it would rather depend on to what extent the email content was also their personal data and their level of seniority within the organisation.

However as this is an ET case, the most appropriate way to obtain the unredacted emails would be through the disclosure process in the lead up to the tribunal. Another court would be unlikely to make an order under DPA when you had an opportunity to ask for disclosure through the ET judge. You may need to be prepared to make a case as to why you need the unredacted emails on a one by one basis.

GrannyKate

It may be a good idea to look on some sites for general guidance on how ETs work - ACAS is probably a good starting point although your solicitor should explain.

In any court case both parties have to disclose upfront anything they intend to rely on in the case. You cannot normally just produce things for the first time in court or at a tribunal which have not been disclosed before (although a judge does have the power to agree to this on occasions). There is a point when you both provide a list of documents to the other party and when you can ask for relevant documents to be released. These documents may be referred to in statements and will form part of bundle of papers at the tribunal. There may be a hearing before a judge if there is an argument about disclosure.

Phil_68

Getting information on an SAR is fine, but under the DPA your company has to protect the identity of others unless you are aware of who they are.

You have asked for 'YOUR' information, they cannot provide you with information that is covered under the DPA. An example:

You send an email to your boss in work, he wants to get the opinion on its contents from someone further up in the company or a third party.
You do not know this other person, so their DATA will be withheld but the contents wont be, if the contents would divulge who they were then the contents 'could be' withheld or watered down.
If you know who that other person is, then they can leave the DATA open as you now have a link to that person.

Hope that gives you an idea on why.

Phil.

GrannyKate

Agree with this. One of the difficulties with DPA is it is a very 'grey' piece of legislation which is open to interpretation and where the person dealing with the subject access request often needs to make pragmatic decisions on redaction. Disclosure for legal proceedings is much more straightforward as it is about relevance to the issues in dispute and does not have to concern itself quite so much with whose information it is. An extreme example might be where there are notes of a conversation between two people regarding their plan to rob a bank - this might contain the personal data of both of them but it would obviously still be releasable in a criminal trial for robbery.

The person doing the SAR is likely to be being advised by the legal team and whilst you can argue about the redactions it is probably a waste of effort when you can make a case for the full emails under the disclosure process. It sounds from what you are saying as if you know who the likely senders and recipients are anyway. If the emails are very relevant to your case then it is probably essential to request full copies through disclosure in order to prepare your final witness statement.

A useful thing to do with the emails is to read them very carefully - put the story in order perhaps on a timeline - you will then be able to see if it is likely that there are some emails which have not been released at all. Also look for references to things such as 'at our meeting' or 'our telephone conversation' and consider asking for notes made of conversations and meetings. These do not have to be formal notes - handwritten scribble in a note book or on a file is disclosable as well.

Ian4996

Thanks for the replies. My understanding based on the replies above is that there'll be some sort of disclosure process prior to the court date, and that with this disclosure process, I'll have to justify why I need the emails unredacted on an individual email by email basis - am I correct on all that?

GrannyKate

Solicitor will be able to advice on disclosure process and which emails to ask for. Initially you can just list what you require but may have to justify the relevance of each email if the other party refuses some or all of your request.

Bamber19

ValHaller wrote: »

As you have this going to tribunal, you have 2 different routes to getting the emails

• Data Subject Access request arising from the Data Protection Act
• the Discovery Process arising from the Procedure Rules for the tribunal

In the former case, the employer has probably acted correctly in removing names. In the latter case, I believe that you would be entitled to the material unredacted, unless the employer makes an application to provide the information after redaction - but you would have to check.

Which process did you use to get the information?

And as I understand it, under the latter, the employer would provide unredacted copies to the tribunal who would then redact them and issue, but unredacted copies would be availalbe to and in sight of the tribunal making the decision and they'd be able to form an opinion on the content. Right?