500,000 Reasons For Data Controllers To Be Careful

The Ministry of Justice has issued a consultation paper to assess the appropriateness of fines of 10% of annual turnover up to a maximum of £500,000 for serious breaches by data controllers of any of the eight data protection principles. The eights principles are:

• Personal data must be processed fairly and lawfully;
• Personal data must be obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purposes and not further processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose or those purposes;
• Personal data must be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which they are processed;
• Personal data must be accurate and where necessary kept up to date;