The Complaint
The Complainant on behalf of his son made a data access request (the "DAR") to a primary school requesting copies of all the information pertaining to his son's application for admission to the primary school for two consecutive school years.
The primary school replied to the Complainant that it could provide the information relating to his son's application for only the current school year. As for the documents for the last school year, they had been destroyed in accordance with the school's usual practice. The Complainant suspected that the primary school had withheld the documents to which he was entitled, so he lodged a complaint with the PCPD.
The Commissioner's investigation revealed that the primary school had destroyed all documents for the last school year at the time of receiving the DAR. It was discovered that the primary school had in its possession the total scores of the Complainant's son for the current year recorded in a Master Score Record (the "Record"). However, the primary school failed to provide the Complainant with the total scores of his son for the current school year. The primary school explained that it did not provide the Complainant with a copy of the Record because the Record also contained the names and scores of all applicants, not just the Complainant's son.
Outcome
The Commissioner was of the view that the primary school had contravened section 19(1) of the Ordinance by failing to provide the requested data contained in the Record on the ground that the primary school was obliged to provide the requested data contained in the Record to the Complainant by omitting other applicants' personal data under section 20(2)(b) of the Ordinance.
Nevertheless, after the Commissioner had explained the requirements under 20(2)(b) of the Ordinance to the primary school, it provided the Complainant with a copy of the Record with the personal data of other applicants edited out.
In view of the remedial action taken by the primary school, the Commissioner considered that the contravention had ceased and there was no likelihood of its repetition. In the circumstances, the Commissioner decided to put the primary school on warning, but not to serve an enforcement notice on the primary school in consequence of the investigation.
uploaded on web in July 2013