Seconded Attorney General staff member

Summary

The Legal Affairs and Justice Committee requested details regarding a proposed secondment of an Attorney General's Chambers staff member to the Isle of Man Constabulary. The Authority responded that the secondment had not yet taken place, meaning specific details on names, dates, and tasks could not be provided, and any such personal data would be exempt under data protection laws.

Key Facts

• The proposed secondment of a duty prosecutor from the AGC to the IOMC had not yet occurred at the time of the response.
• The Attorney General previously stated the intention to place a prosecuting lawyer in the police station for approximately six months.
• Requests for names, dates, and qualifications of the seconded staff were declined because the deployment was not active.
• The Authority cited Section 25 of the Act as an absolute exemption for personal data regarding the proposed staff member.
• Disclosure of the requested information was deemed to contravene data protection principles under Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation.

Data Disclosed

• 11 November 2019
• 18 November 2019
• 27 November 2019
• 2017
• 2018
• 2019
• six months
• Section 25
• Article 5

Exemptions Cited

• Section 25 of the Act (Personal Information)
• Data protection principles under Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation

Original Request

The Legal Affairs and Justice Committee on 11 November 2019 heard that the Isle of Man Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) has a member of staff seconded to the Isle of Man Constabulary (IOMC). This raises a number of important public interest questions. Please confirm: a) the name(s) of the presently and previously seconded AGC staff member(s) in 2017, 2018 and 2019? b) dates of the secondment(s)? c) exact qualifications of the seconded AGC staff member(s)? d) which tasks are performed by the seconded AGC staff member(s) and for which departments of the IOMC and which types of crime reported? e) do(es) the seconded staff member(s) report all tasks carried out within and on behalf of the IOMC to the AGC in writing and/or electronically? f) is/are the seconded AGC staff member(s) qualified and authorised to provide legal advice to the IOMC; if so, what kind of advice, for which departments and which types of crimes reported? g) do(es) the seconded staff member(s) report all advice given on crimes reported to IOMC to the AGC in writing and/or electronically? h) is the AGC responsible for all data protection compliance concerning the seconded staff member(s)? i) do(es) seconded AGC staff member(s) use an official @attgen.gov.im email address while seconded to IOMC or an @iom.pnn.police.uk or other non-AGC email address; are all emails, memos and letters authored by and/or received by the seconded staff member(s) copied to the AGC? j) the AG stated that both AGC and IOMC have/are rolling out new computer systems and that AGC has complete access to the IOMC systems; is this confirmed and which files does (or does not) the AGC have access to at the IOMC?

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

Attorney General's Chambers 2nd floor Belgravia House Circular Road, Douglas Isle of Man, IM1 1AE Telephone: (01624) 685452 E-mail: attgen@gov.im

Our ref: 1053761 27 November 2019

Dear ###

We write further to your request which was received on 18 November 2019 and which states:

"The Legal Affairs and Justice Committee on 11 November 2019 heard that the Isle of Man Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) has a member of staff seconded to the Isle of Man Constabulary (IOMC). This raises a number of important public interest questions. Please confirm: a) the name(s) of the presently and previously seconded AGC staff member(s) in 2017, 2018 and 2019? b) dates of the secondment(s)? c) exact qualifications of the seconded AGC staff member(s)? d) which tasks are performed by the seconded AGC staff member(s) and for which departments of the IOMC and which types of crime reported? e) do(es) the seconded staff member(s) report all tasks carried out within and on behalf of the IOMC to the AGC in writing and/or electronically? f) is/are the seconded AGC staff member(s) qualified and authorised to provide legal advice to the IOMC; if so, what kind of advice, for which departments and which types of crimes reported? g) do(es) the seconded staff member(s) report all advice given on crimes reported to IOMC to the AGC in writing and/or electronically? h) is the AGC responsible for all data protection compliance concerning the seconded staff member(s)? i) do(es) seconded AGC staff member(s) use an official @attgen.gov.im email address while seconded to IOMC or an @iom.pnn.police.uk or other non-AGC email address; are all emails, memos and letters authored by and/or received by the seconded staff member(s) copied to the AGC? j) the AG stated that both AGC and IOMC have/are rolling out new computer systems

and that AGC has complete access to the IOMC systems; is this confirmed and which files does (or does not) the AGC have access to at the IOMC?" Your request relates to relating to The Attorney General’s evidence to the Committee on the 11th November 2019, as published in the Official Report from The Standard Committee of Tynwald Court Official Report (Hansard), included the following remark which is understood to give rise to the question: “ What we are trying to do there is to work closely with the police to improve that part of the process and what I have decided to do is actually to put one of my prosecuting lawyers in the police station. So I am going to actually put a prosecuting lawyer in there to work full time, and I will possibly put them there for six months or so to speed that process up”. In relation to the proposed secondment of a member of staff (duty prosecutor) from the AGCs, this has yet to take place and thus the responses below are provided on the basis of the deployment as proposed, I am unable to provide any comments on this. Addressing your particular queries: I have detailed the following information: a) – c) Due to the deployment not yet having taken place, we are unable to provide any information relating to this. (The information requested would in any event be exempt under section 25):
s25 (b)(i)&(ii) While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because it is absolutely exempt under section 25 of the Act (absolutely exempt personal information). The reasons why that exemption applies are that: • The Attorney Generals Chambers is satisfied that the information amounts to personal data of which you are not the data subject; and • The Attorney Generals Chambers is satisfied that disclosure of the information would contravene one of the data protection principles as set out at Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation as it applies in the Isle of Man pursuant to the Data Protection (Application of GDPR) Order 2018, namely that the Attorney Generals Chambers can only disclose the information where it would be fair, lawful and meet one of the conditions for lawful processing in Article 6 and in this case, none of those conditions have been met. d) - e) The duty advocate would be deployed to provide routine charging advice to the constabulary generally (without limitation to the type of crime). All advices will be recorded (as is presently the position).

f) The duty prosecutor will be legally qualified and authorised to provide advices. g) as above. h) Yes, the position is no different to any other AGC staff member. i) Once deployed, the same AGC email address will be used. Advices and documents produced by the duty prosecutor will be recorded in the same was as if generated in the AGCs. j) In order to provide clarity, for the purposes of prosecutions; there will be access to the police system for cases which have been charged or require summonses, investigation cases where advice may be sought from the AGCs; and previous convictions. The AGCs do NOT have complete access to systems used by the police.

Please quote the reference number 1053761 in any future communications.

Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded.

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.

Yours sincerely