Keep the right staff records

Staff records: your duties to protect data

The Data Protection Act 1998 is concerned with personal data - information about living, identifiable individuals held on computer or in certain structured manual files. There are eight clear principles for processing such data to comply with the Act.

Data should be:

• processed fairly and lawfully - make sure employees know the purposes for using their data
• for specified and lawful purposes - beware of using information obtained for one purpose for a different purpose
• adequate, relevant and not excessive
• accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date
• kept no longer than necessary
• processed in line with individuals' rights, including their right to access
• kept secure
• transferred only to countries that provide adequate personal data protection

As the data controller, you're responsible for complying with the Act. As well as complying with the data protection principles, this means that you may have to notify the Information Commissioner when you process personal data.

For definitions and information about the Data Protection Act 1998, see our guide on how to comply with data protection legislation.

Failure to comply with the Act can result in the Information Commissioner issuing an Enforcement Notice, the contravention of which is a criminal offence. Compensation can be awarded to individuals if they suffer damage (usually physical or financial) or distress as a result of a breach of the Act.

You must keep the eight data protection principles in mind when deciding what information to collect, when establishing procedures for processing this information, and when dealing with requests from employees.

You can download information about best practice and your obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998 from the Information Commissioner website (PDF).

You also have a duty to respond to employees' requests for access to their records. See the page in this guide on staff records: your employees' rights for information on subject access requests.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• Benefits of keeping the right staff records
• Set up a staff records system
• How long to keep staff records
• Staff records: your duties to protect data
• Staff records: your employees' rights

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