Subject Access Request denied

onedaymyfriend

Good evening guys, I'm after a little advice.

Our 4yr old son slipped on a wet floor (freshly moped) in McDonalds and ended up with a bruised face. There were no wet floor signs in our vicinity. I sent a SAR to customer service, who forwarded it on to the store. The stores reply is below. 

In response to your Subject Access Request, please note that we are unable to supply copies of CCTV footage. However, you are welcome to attend the restaurant to view the relevant footage in person as part of the DSAR process. Any viewing would take place by appointment, with a member of our management team present at all times. Recording, photographing, or otherwise copying the footage would not be permitted.

Alternatively, if you would prefer, we are able to provide a written description of the relevant footage for your review.

I believe that the store is negligent, is there anything I can do re their response?

Thank you as always.

itsthelittlethings

If other people would be in the footage maybe that’s why they won’t give you a copy.

sheramber

If the store were not aware the floor was wet they are not negligent.

Why was the floor wet?

Had it been mopped ? In which case they would know about it.

Had a customer spilt something and not told them? In that case they may not have known about it. 

p00hsticks

onedaymyfriend said:

is there anything I can do re their response?

From the sound of it, take them up on their offer of either arranging an appointment to view the footage in person or ask for a written description ? 

Ayr_Rage

Sounds like a fair offer.

user1977

You may as well view it to check if it contains anything useful?

A_Geordie

Nonsense.

If this turns out to be a personal injury claim which is what I suspect the OP is potentially angling at here, they would need to disclose the CCTV as part of legal proceedings.

As far as a SAR rejection goes, they need to provide a valid and reasonable justification why they are refusing to provide the CCTV footage. Simply saying no without explanation is more than likely going to mean that the McDonalds store will be in breach of their obligations. There are readily available redaction, blurring tools that would allow the store to protect identities other others that are seen in the footage so there should be reasonable consideration of this. The response might suggest this is a franchise rather than a Mcdonalds owned store.

You may want to consider: 

- Making arrangements promptly to view the footage and confirm if there is any negligence on the store's part.

- If there are reasonable grounds to suspect there is negligence, immediately write back to the store and demand a copy in line with your rights under GDPR whilst at the same time telling them that the need to preserve the footage as a result of potentially further action being taken against the store for negligence that resulted in a bruise to your son's face. 

- You can also add to the end of your response and remind them it is a criminal offence under s173 of the Data Protection Act 2018 to alter, deface, block, erase, destroy or conceal information with the intention of preventing disclosure of all or part of the information that the person making the request would have been entitled to receive where a data subject submitted a subject access request.

- You can also complain to the ICO and ask them to order the store to hand over the data. 

elsien

So how much compo would you be expecting to get for a bruise?

onedaymyfriend

sheramber said:

If the store were not aware the floor was wet they are not negligent.

Why was the floor wet?

Had it been mopped ? In which case they would know about it.

Had a customer spilt something and not told them? In that case they may not have known about it. 

I do apologise, yes the floor had been mopped. I'll add this to my original post.

Jackie1813

I think they would have to hand it over to a solicitor or an insurance company but not  necessarily to you as the footage may contain other people.

screech_78

Sounds fair enough to me. 

You’d be better cutting to the chase and telling them how much you’re after.