Although submissions were given by the complainant in the Meeting, it did not thereby render them his personal data in the minute prepared for the Meeting as the information recorded in the minute was about an industrial incident The subject matter of the Meeting was not about the complainant but the equipment in question.
Complainant-former employee of hospital - data access request made in relation to a minutes of meeting on a boiler accident - minutes concerned the incident rather than complainant's personal data - minutes already possessed by complainant - data access request refused - DPP6 and section 18 of the PD(P)O
The Complaint
The complainant alleged that the hospital in which he had worked had contravened the data access provisions of the PD(P)O in failing to provide to him, in response to his data access request, a copy of the minutes of a meeting which he had attended. To substantiate his claim, he provided to the PCPD a copy of the minutes in his possession, which showed what he had said in the meeting. The complainant insisted that the hospital should still have a copy of the minutes and should provide such a copy to him.
Findings of the Privacy Commissioner
The PCPD investigated into the matter including the carrying out of a site inspection of the hospital. The result indicated that the hospital had exhausted all practicable means to attempt to locate the minutes but such attempts had been unsuccessful. Given that the contents of the minutes were not sensitive in nature, that the complainant already had a copy of the said minutes and that there was no evidence to show that the minutes were being concealed by the hospital, the Privacy Commissioner formed the opinion that there was no contravention of the data access provisions of the PD(P)O. The complainant appealed.
The appeal
Upon hearing the appeal, the AAB unanimously upheld the Privacy Commissioner's decision that there had been no contravention of the data access provisions by the hospital. The AAB went further to rule that the contents of the minutes in question did not in fact amount to the personal data of the complainant, in that it was primarily about a certain piece of equipment in the hospital rather than about the complainant himself, even though it had recorded some of the complainant's remarks on the occasion.
AAB's decision
The appeal was dismissed.
(p.s. Dissatisfied with the AAB's decision, the complainant applied for judicial review in HCAL 1050/2000. The Court of First Instance confirmed the decisions made by the PCPD and the AAB respectively and dismissed the complainant's application. The complainant appealed against the court's decision and lodged an appeal with the Court of Appeal in CACV 960/2000 which appeal was dismissed and decision of the Court of First Instance upheld. Full judgment of the cases are found in Judiciary's home page, www.judiciary.gov.hk.)