Employer unresponsive to SAR request

Uyuni

I wondered if someone could help. My partner is having a complex situation at work. 
She has requested for a SAR to her employer more than 4 months ago, opened a case with the information commissioner (ICO) but they haven't contacted the employer, the advice given from ICO is to only wait for their final response but her employer won't answer. they have told her that they cannot enforce response, so it seems ICO won't do much. 

This information is evidence. what can my partner do about it while this information is of use to her? thanks!

ianfromnotts

4 Months - you are probably out of time for the tribunal action now.  

The SAR should have been supplied within 30 days or an explanation of why not given.  The correct process would in my opinion have been on day 31 to email with a hard copy letter sent by special delivery post reminding them that it is over due and asking them to supply within say 7 working days.   If this is not replied to raise a formal grievance/complaint that the SAR has not been received.   Ask for a formal written response to your complaint.  If that doesn't deliver the SAR then report it to the ICO.

I am guessing the ICO wont progress because they can't see a formal complaint response from the employer

Uyuni

ianfromnotts said:

4 Months - you are probably out of time for the tribunal action now.  

The SAR should have been supplied within 30 days or an explanation of why not given.  The correct process would in my opinion have been on day 31 to email with a hard copy letter sent by special delivery post reminding them that it is over due and asking them to supply within say 7 working days.   If this is not replied to raise a formal grievance/complaint that the SAR has not been received.   Ask for a formal written response to your complaint.  If that doesn't deliver the SAR then report it to the ICO.

I am guessing the ICO wont progress because they can't see a formal complaint response from the employer

Thank you for that input and advice. The company sent a letter to extend it for 3 months with the excuse that they were merging systems. My partner asked for clarity on their reasons and for part of the SAR request, no response from the company. On the 3 months deadline the company said to download it from a site, the site had confidential information that shouldn't provide access to and had not a single document related to the request. She requested again and again and communicated with ICO, but  ICO said they are giving opportunity to respond for another month and if nothing then come back to them. I do not think that is sensible. She has asked several times about her SAR request. she has already ET case with her company and she needs the evidence for it.  

Marcon

Uyuni said:

ianfromnotts said:

4 Months - you are probably out of time for the tribunal action now.  

The SAR should have been supplied within 30 days or an explanation of why not given.  The correct process would in my opinion have been on day 31 to email with a hard copy letter sent by special delivery post reminding them that it is over due and asking them to supply within say 7 working days.   If this is not replied to raise a formal grievance/complaint that the SAR has not been received.   Ask for a formal written response to your complaint.  If that doesn't deliver the SAR then report it to the ICO.

I am guessing the ICO wont progress because they can't see a formal complaint response from the employer

Thank you for that input and advice. The company sent a letter to extend it for 3 months with the excuse that they were merging systems. My partner asked for clarity on their reasons and for part of the SAR request, no response from the company. On the 3 months deadline the company said to download it from a site, the site had confidential information that shouldn't provide access to and had not a single document related to the request. She requested again and again and communicated with ICO, but  ICO said they are giving opportunity to respond for another month and if nothing then come back to them. I do not think that is sensible. She has asked several times about her SAR request. she has already ET case with her company and she needs the evidence for it.  

Then you wait I'm afraid. It's not an uncommon tactic with employers and is usually done to increase the pressure on the person requesting the information to use against the employer.

Undervalued

Uyuni said:

ianfromnotts said:

4 Months - you are probably out of time for the tribunal action now.  

The SAR should have been supplied within 30 days or an explanation of why not given.  The correct process would in my opinion have been on day 31 to email with a hard copy letter sent by special delivery post reminding them that it is over due and asking them to supply within say 7 working days.   If this is not replied to raise a formal grievance/complaint that the SAR has not been received.   Ask for a formal written response to your complaint.  If that doesn't deliver the SAR then report it to the ICO.

I am guessing the ICO wont progress because they can't see a formal complaint response from the employer

Thank you for that input and advice. The company sent a letter to extend it for 3 months with the excuse that they were merging systems. My partner asked for clarity on their reasons and for part of the SAR request, no response from the company. On the 3 months deadline the company said to download it from a site, the site had confidential information that shouldn't provide access to and had not a single document related to the request. She requested again and again and communicated with ICO, but  ICO said they are giving opportunity to respond for another month and if nothing then come back to them. I do not think that is sensible. She has asked several times about her SAR request. she has already ET case with her company and she needs the evidence for it.  

The problem is whilst the ICO, theoretically at least, has significant powers they have very limited resources. They are not going to get a warrant and kick the door down over something like this!

The company will no doubt eventually send you something to try an avoid a "slap on the wrist" fixed penalty. However if they miss out relevant bits that is even harder to deal with unless somebody "whistle blows" from within.

If you have filed an ET claim you can of course use the legal discovery rules to try and obtain relevant documents. Again though if any inconvenient (to them) gets "lost" it is difficult to do much about it. If they were to fabricate evidence and you can prove that, it becomes more serious. People have gone to prison for doing that!

Uyuni

Undervalued said:

Uyuni said:

ianfromnotts said:

4 Months - you are probably out of time for the tribunal action now.  

The SAR should have been supplied within 30 days or an explanation of why not given.  The correct process would in my opinion have been on day 31 to email with a hard copy letter sent by special delivery post reminding them that it is over due and asking them to supply within say 7 working days.   If this is not replied to raise a formal grievance/complaint that the SAR has not been received.   Ask for a formal written response to your complaint.  If that doesn't deliver the SAR then report it to the ICO.

I am guessing the ICO wont progress because they can't see a formal complaint response from the employer

Thank you for that input and advice. The company sent a letter to extend it for 3 months with the excuse that they were merging systems. My partner asked for clarity on their reasons and for part of the SAR request, no response from the company. On the 3 months deadline the company said to download it from a site, the site had confidential information that shouldn't provide access to and had not a single document related to the request. She requested again and again and communicated with ICO, but  ICO said they are giving opportunity to respond for another month and if nothing then come back to them. I do not think that is sensible. She has asked several times about her SAR request. she has already ET case with her company and she needs the evidence for it.  

The problem is whilst the ICO, theoretically at least, has significant powers they have very limited resources. They are not going to get a warrant and kick the door down over something like this!

The company will no doubt eventually send you something to try an avoid a "slap on the wrist" fixed penalty. However if they miss out relevant bits that is even harder to deal with unless somebody "whistle blows" from within.

If you have filed an ET claim you can of course use the legal discovery rules to try and obtain relevant documents. Again though if any inconvenient (to them) gets "lost" it is difficult to do much about it. If they were to fabricate evidence and you can prove that, it becomes more serious. People have gone to prison for doing that!

Thanks for that - If the claim take its course data disclosure would be beneficial. On the other hand - she has part of the evidence in the company computer -emails- and in the history of her phone. The company has put her on suspension and has removed her from access to systems but history information remains within her computer. could that be a last resource if they do not want to disclose her own data? - I'm suspecting they are going to say that the information got lost during system merger! In any case I told her to just limit to take the date and write the content separately, as she was doing before anyway. I wonder if she can take her own data from her computer in a form that is hard evidence, I cannot find much around that. - I think they don't know she has that and other evidence in her computer. 
it's a complex situation at work that is affecting her mental health, so I'm looking to support her more. Thanks for those comments.