Thank you to our first person who has asked a question in this year’s Knowledge November focus on Data Protection and subject access requests.

Q: What is classed as a reasonable request and can employers decline a request?

A: Reasonableness doesn’t really come into it. Provided someone makes a valid request (which meets the requirements of the Act) e.g.:- making the request under the legislation, doing so in writing and paying an admin fee of £10 if so required, they are entitled to a copy of any personal data you hold about them, even if they are being unreasonable in their reason for wanting it.

You are entitled to withhold certain categories of data which are exempt (we’ll be talking about this in the next few weeks) but other than that, if it’s data which they are the subject of you will have to disclose it as part of the request.

We will be going on to talk about people who make repeated requests or where you have already provided the information to them in later weeks in the Knowledge November series.

Thanks for your question 🙂