By kind courtesy of Mr Chris Brogan of SECURITY INTERNATIONAL LTD
Thanks Chris.

Last Wednesday an investigator was prosecuted by the Information Commissioner's office and fined £6250 for a number of offences.
One of those offences was for not notifying the Information Commissioner that
he was processing personal data when he was required to do so. That is a
strict liability offence...a criminal offence.

Now consider this.
Assuming that investigator wants to stay in business, he will be applying for
a licence next year. When the SIA do their checks they will find his criminal
record. Are they likely to not issue him with one in view of these offences?

I would suggest that investigation is all about processing personal data.
The Data Protection act is all about processing personal data.
Doesn't it follow therefore that this type of criminal activity should debar
him from holding a licence?

Every so often I do a small survey where I check how many investigators have
notified the Information Commissioner's office that they are processing
personal data.

As a result of this prosecution I did it again. I took 40 names from the  established
investigation agencies. I could only find 28 of them having notified the commissioner.

There is a message there somewhere.

Thanks again Chris for your permission to share your views with us. Regards,
Mike.