Neil Wilby Media

Earlier today (12th September, 2012), legal proceedings were set in train against a notoriously opaque public authority over their latest round of law breaking.

Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council are now served with a Pre-Action Protocol Letter before Claim (LbC) following their failure to deliver data subject disclosure requested by Neil Wilby, the author of this article, on 9th June, 2023.

An article setting out the troubled history of the request was published on Neil Wilby Media yesterday and can be read in full here.

The LbC, sent to the Council’s Legal Services Department, reads as follows:

“Under Civil Procedure Rules I am required to serve you with a Letter before Claim in order to comply with Pre-Action Protocol.

“Please regard this email as fulfilling that obligation.

“A claim form is to be filed in the county court on or about 26th September, 2023, the brief particulars of which are as follows.

“Claimant: Neil Wilby (C)

“Defendant: Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council (D)

“In failing to disclose materials to C, sought by way of data subject access and accepted by D as a valid request on 9th June, 2023, D has breached s45 of the Data Protection Act, 2018 (DPA) and Article 15, General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

“C claims by way of s168 DPA and Article 82 of GDPR non-material damages.

“Non-monetary and declaratory relief will also be sought.

“Witness evidence will show that the breach has been deliberate. It will further show that D’s disclosure process, still incomplete, has been conducted in a manner calculated to vex, annoy and harass.

“The court will be invited to treat these actions as aggravating features when assessing damages.

“The court requires D to acknowledge this communication promptly and respond substantively within 14 days of receipt. Cost sanctions will likely be imposed by the court if D does not comply.

“The expectation is that an offer to settle the contemplated claim will be made by D. The breach is unarguable, the only matters in issue are the admission, or otherwise, of the aggravating features impacting on the assessment of damages; a declaration that D has breached DPA and GDPR; and a suitably worded apology..

“Disclosure

“In order to assist the court in determining the existence, and extent, of those aggravating features, D is required to disclose all internal and external communications relating to C’s data subject access request from 5th June, 2023 until the date of the response to this communication. Failure to do so will result in a pre-action application for the same disclosure being filed with the court. You are, accordingly, on notice of costs in that regard.

“All rights in respect of other breaches, if and when disclosure by way of the data subject access request is eventually made, are reserved.”

Despite the clear procedural requirement to do so, Oldham Council is yet to acknowledge receipt of the LbC. A search on the Law Society database reveals that they employ eighteen qualified solicitors in their Legal Services Department (see here).

That failure is likely to be only the beginning of a calamitous but familiar process, certain to end in humiliation for Borough Solicitor, Paul Entwistle; the subject of a number of previous and excoriating articles elsewhere on this website (read more here).

Follow Neil Wilby on Twitter (here) and Neil Wilby Media on Facebook (here) for signposts to any updates.

Page last updated: Tuesday 12th September, 2023 at 12h45

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