Manx Care ordered to review data request processes

Manx Care has been ordered to carry out a review of how it deals with personal data requests after "systemic failures" were found in its handling processes.

The information commissioner has issued an enforcement notice to the healthcare body after its search for information was deemed to be "poorly focussed" and the response was "unduly" delayed.

Manx Care has been given 30 days to comply with the notice or it could face a fine and a referral to the high court.

The healthcare provider has been asked for a response.

Under Manx law, people have the right to access their personal data from organisations that process it, with the information required to be provided within a month.

The latest enforcement notice the Information Commissioner Alexandra Delaney-Bhattacharya's said Manx Care had also failed to improve compliance processes after a warning over similar concerns was issued in 2021.

A complaint was brought to the commissioner in April last year, after a former employee had submitted a subject access request.

Ms Delaney-Bhattacharya's review found the searches were "poorly focussed, not reasonable or insufficient", and Manx Care had "not adapted their searches to the types of personal data clearly specified in the request".

The provider was "unable" to meet the statutory timeframe of one month, which "appears to be, at least in part, as a result of the failure to conduct necessary and proportionate searches", she said.

Ms Delaney-Bhattacharya's said it had taken four months for the request to be completed, which was "a significant delay that should have been easily prevented".

Manx Care would "not be able to improve compliance with statutory timeframes until it revises its approach to how searches are conducted", she said.

The commissioner also found as the issue was similar to the complaint in the 2021 notice, Manx Care had "failed to evidence" they had made improvements to the system since then.

If the right of access was not improved following the notice, the commissioner would consider imposing a financial penalty, she added.

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