West Lothian and email

[Ian Batten]

On 13 Jan 2009, at 20:55, signup@bealoid.co.uk wrote:

> BBC Radio Four's "InTouch" programme had an interesting piece about  
> 'data protection paranoia', and a blind woman who was told by her  
> Mental Health trust that they could not email appointment details to  
> her because of data protection laws.

It's a general rule of nature that anyone who invokes Health and  
Safety or Data Protection as a reason not to do something is talking  
rubbish.  There will be exceptions, but they're not worth worrying  
about.  Sad, but true.  The Data Protection legislation, which should  
be a boon to the general public against the might of the state and  
large corporations, has become a do-nothing excuse for jobsworth local  
government staff.

Birmingham Council now insists that mince pies at Christmas concerts  
by the saturday morning orchestras must be in factory-sealed packages  
because of `Health and Safety'.    I've recently sent in a FoI request  
for the risk assessment and decision making process that lead to this  
conclusion.  I'm not expecting much of a response.

ian