DWP Central Freedom of Information Team
e-
mail: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xxx
Our Ref: FoI 4792
Date: 8 December 2017
Dear Mr Evans,
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request of 10 November 2017. You asked:
Please explain in legal terms how the dwp can contravene the Data Protection
Act by mandating work and health programme participants to use in house
provider job search engines against their will or without their consent. Surely the
dwp must act within the law at all times and therefore cannot ignore the
protections afforded to participants of the scheme by the aforementioned act.
DWP and its Work and Health Programme (WHP) Providers have a legal power to
mandate long term unemployed customers to the WHP under Section 2(2)(b) [8C] of
the
Jobseeker’s Allowance (Schemes for Assisting Persons to Obtain
Employment) (Amendment) Regulations 2017 No. 1020.
These Regulations give DWP and its Providers the authority to
“assist a claimant who
is long term unemployed in which, for a period of up to 456 calendar days , the claimant
is given such support , and required to participate in such activity, as the provider of
the WHP considers appropriate and reasonable in the claimant’s circumstances to
assist the claimant to obtain and sustain employment”. The legislation therefore allows
DWP and its Providers to mandate the long term unemployed to the WHP.
DWP and its Providers ensure that processing of personal data is carried out lawfully
and fairly and is in accordance with the principles set out in the Data Protection Act
1998 (DPA). The DPA 1998 requires particular conditions for processing personal data
to be met under Schedule 2 and 3 of the Act and consent can be one such condition.
The Department in the case of the WHP is not relying on consent as a condition for
processing, and instead relies on the provisions found in Schedule 2 and 3 of the DPA
which state that the processing is
necessary for the exercise of any functions conferred
on any person by or under any enactment and necessary for the exercise of any
functions of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown or a government department. Finally, we refer you to the DWP Personal Information Charter that sets out the
Department’s fair processing policy. Please visit
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/personal-information-charter for further information.
If you have any queries about this letter please contact me quoting the reference
number above.
Yours sincerely,
DWP Strategy FoI Team
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www.ico.gov.uk