Author: Miles Shillingford (2000)

Its impact on the Corporate Trustee’s Right to Withhold Information of a Confidential or Personal Nature from Beneficiaries
Miles Shillingford
(taken from Isssue No 11 –  April 2000)

The Background

The need for data protection law first arose in the 1970’s with the growing use of computers and the desire to protect the individual from the threat to personal privacy posed by the vastly increased ability to misuse and manipulate data about individuals. The 1984 Act introduced a requirement to register with the Data Protection Registrar where a data user automatically processed personal data (information relating to a living individual who can be identified from the information, including an expression of opinion about the individual). A data subject had the right to request access to any personal data held on him or her for a small fee, and the request could be enforced by the Registrar or the courts.