Subject access requests

Subject access requests and other data subject rights

Organisations regularly receive requests from people for a copy of the personal data that is held about them. This is known as a subject access request (SAR). Dealing with SARs can be complex and challenging and can take up a significant amount of time and resource.

Our team have developed a number of solutions to assist our clients manage SARs in a cost effective way:

• Often SARs are made in the context of a wider dispute or claim. For example, a SAR may be made by an employee who is looking for information to fuel a grievance or claim. We provide strategic advice to ensure that the SAR response is consistent with the wider strategy on the employment aspects.
  
  
• We use special software to help manage our SARs, including software that will automatically de-duplicate document bundles and remove emails that the requester has already seen. The same process enables us to identify information that is obviously exempt (eg, information that is subject to legal professional privilege). This significantly reduces the time (and therefore legal cost) required when dealing with large scale SAR and quickly identify documents that are likely to be of most concern.

In addition to SARs, we have a lot of experience in advising on other data subject rights such as the right to be forgotten and the right to rectification.

Do you need advice on subject access requests? Please contact Andrew Gallie on 0117 314 5623.