A local authority in England was not vicariously liable for an employee’s misuse of sensitive data, the High Court in London has ruled.
Rosie Nance of Pinsent Masons said the judgment has reinforced the legal test, set by the UK Supreme Court in a case involving supermarket Morrisons, for determining whether an employer should be held vicariously liable for the mishandling of personal data by an employee.
The case before the High Court revolved around the handling of personal data by an employee at Luton Borough Council in the aftermath of a complaint made to the police by a citizen, Isma Ali, concerning her husband at the time. The complaint resulted in a multi-agency referral by the police to Luton Borough Council, as the complaint gave rise to safeguarding concerns relating to Ali and the couple’s children. Ali suspected information relating to her had been leaked, and learned that her husband had been informed of her complaint by an individual who worked at the council who he was now seeing.
Rhully Begum, an employee of Luton Borough Council, accessed case records relating to Ali and the children. Some of those records contained data of a highly sensitive nature capable of placing a family at risk. Begum was dismissed from her employment with the local authority and was charged with and pleaded guilty to an offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990.
It was not disputed that Begum required unrestricted access to Luton Borough Council’s case management system to perform...
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