Fair processing

The first principle of the 1998 Data Protection Act is that personal data must be processed fairly and lawfully. In order to achieve this, patients must be made aware of, and consent to, the ways in which information about them may be collected and used. To check that you are correctly applying the first principle you should be able to affirm the following:

When the data subjects are providing information about themselves to you...

• do you make them aware how it will be used, eg. that it will be processed on computer?
• do you make them aware of the purpose for which the data being collected will be used, e.g. for research, audit, administration?
• do you make them aware of to whom it will be disclosed?

Information on information use routinely given to ORH patients is available here.