This week has brought unprecedented disruption to the legal system, and the whole economy.  The Panopticon team, and all of us at 11KBW, are working hard to ensure that we can continue to provide you with the level of service that you have come to expect.  Meanwhile, here are some initial responses to the Coronavirus pandemic from an information law perspective. Continue reading →

Anyone who has had a FOIA case in the national security space will have faced the near-impossible task of trying to work out what on earth Corderoy & Ahmed v Information Commissioner & Attorney General & Cabinet Office [2017] UKUT 495 (AAC) means; a front-runner for most impenetrable Upper Tribunal decision on FOIA. Now Judge Markus QC has had a go at squaring the circle in Lownie v Information Commissioner & Foreign and Commonwealth Office & The National Archives [2020] UKUT 32 (AAC). Continue reading →

Some long-running litigation is the gift that keeps on giving. Some is Dawson-Damer v Taylor Wessing LLP [2020] EWCA Civ 352, back to the Court of Appeal for the second time and very much a case of diminishing returns. Unless you are a trusts lawyer, particularly in the Bahamas, or fascinated by filing systems. And who isn’t one of those things? Continue reading →

Relatively unnoticed in the morass of GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 provisions is the right under section 166 DPA 2018 to apply to the First-tier Tribunal for an order that the ICO progress a complaint which has been made to it under section 165 or Article 77 GDPR. In other words, the core aim of the provision is to deal with situations in which the ICO has taken too long to address a complaint made about, for example, compliance with a subject access request. But what is the nature of the FTT’s role? Continue reading →

We all sort of know that the Data Protection Act 1998 didn’t apply to stuff people say orally, don’t we? But pointing to an authority that said so is rather harder. Luckily, now we have one: Scott v LGBT Foundation Ltd [2020] EWHC 483 (QB). Continue reading →

The decision, which is hardly surprising, will doubtless be welcomed by all controllers. The hearing before the Supreme Court is not expected until the end of 2020, early 2021. Further updates will of course be posted on Panopticon in due course!

Anya Proops QC