Legal News | 7.05.21

Testing and Vaccinations for COVID-19 and Employer Data Protection Obligations

Collecting, processing and storing test results, temperature checks and the vaccination status of your staff relates to their health, which is sensitive information and is classed as “special category data” under UK General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (UK GDPR).

It is advised that all employers who intend to check temperatures of their staff, request that home testing kits are undertaken, or request that staff confirm they have received a vaccination, carry out a data protection impact assessment to assist with demonstrating their accountability

To decide if collecting staff health information or asking staff to be tested for COVID-19 is necessary, you will need to consider your organisation and your workplace. It is not only data protection laws which apply, you will need to consider health and safety requirements, employment law, your employment contracts, your duty of care to your staff, equality and human rights issues and any specific laws and regulations that apply to your industry.

You should be clear as to what you are trying to achieve and whether collecting this personal information is necessary for that purpose.

Many employers have decided to avoid a return to office based work, as the data requirement is just one of many. We can provide advice and help if you need to consider the regulatory requirements for a return of staff to your place of work.

For full details of the UK GDPR please see the ICO guidance here: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/

If you have any questions on your obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018, any points raised in this article or you wish to subscribe to our legal updates then please get in touch with your usual contact, via our contact form https://wansbroughs.com/contact/ or email commercial@wansbroughs.com