Lawyer Monthly Magazine - August 2019 Edition

13 AUG 2019 | WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM Monthly Roundup news • ICO ‘a regulator to be respected' following blockbuster BA and Mar- riott fines The number of whistle- blower reports to the ICO over data breaches has jumped 175% in the year since the introduction of GDPR, from 138 in 2017/18 to 379 in 2018/19*, says City-headquartered law firm RPC. RPC says that the intro- duction of GDPR in May 2018 has made people significantly more vigi- lant and aware about the handling of personal data, and more likely to report potential data breaches. The firm adds that the sud- den increase in whistle- blower reports will be a real concern to busi- nesses, particularly given the £283m in blockbuster data breach fines recently handed out by the ICO to British Airways and hotel group Marriott Interna- tional. Those two fines, issued in little more than 24 hours, amount to more than three quarters of the total fines issued by the Finan- cial Conduct Authority in the whole of the past year**. They also represent a 53-fold increase on the £3.4m in penalties levied by the ICO last year. Richard Breavington, Partner at RPC, says: “The jump in whistleblowing reports of data breaches will be a concern to busi- nesses. The ICO’s large fines mean data security continues to be a C-suite issue for businesses that hold personal data.” “GDPR has driven a cul- tural shift in how people perceive personal data and its value. More peo- ple now see it as part of their personal property, and they are more likely to act if they believe it is being misused.” “The ICO has shown that it is a regulator to be re- spected. The FCA had traditionally been thought to be among the tougher regulators in the UK, but the fines the ICO is levy- ing are now on a different scale.” “There were a lot of eyes on the ICO, waiting to see how it would use its new powers. Few foresaw it hit- ting a business with such a high fine at this stage.” “Boards should be moving to ensure their businesses are not just GDPR-com- pliant on paper, but that they are culturally doing everything possible to en- sure appropriate stand- ards of technical and or- ganisational security.” The long-awaited intro- duction of The Guardian- ship (Missing Persons) Act 2017 will relieve “a terrible burden” on the families of missing people accord- ing to leading law firm Roythornes. Due to be introduced on 30th July 2019, the Act is intended to relieve the legal burden on the fami- lies of those missing for longer than 90 days and assumed to be living. The new legislation is known as “Claudia’s Law” in memo- ry of the York chef Claudia Lawrence who went miss- ing nine years ago. Elizabeth Young, head of the private client team at Roythornes, said: “Previ- ously, the only way to ad- minister a missing person case was via the probate courts by providing evi- dence that the individual concerned was presumed dead. In the case of the Lawrence family, this meant they had to wait seven years for an order to be made; for other fami- lies, it means the devas- tating situation of having “Terrible Burden” To Be Lifted From Families With Missing Relatives Data Breach Whistleblower Reports to ICO Jump 175% in the Year Since GDPR FAMILY LAW GDPR to officially acknowledge that their loved one has died. This new Act will change that to the ben- efit of anyone having to go through this tragic pro- cess.” Claudia’s father, Peter Lawrence OBE has been campaigning for the change in law since his daughter’s disappear- ance with the support of the charity Missing Person. The law creates a new legal status of “guardian” of the affairs of a missing person. Appointments will be made upon applica- tion to the court of ap- propriate individuals or a Trust Corporation that will be expected to act in the best interests of the miss- ing person pending their potential return. The guardian will be su- pervised by the Office of the Public Guardian in a similar fashion to those appointed as deputies for those with reduced capacity and will be ex- pected to account for their actions on an annual basis. The appointments will be for an initial renew- able period of four years. The rights and powers that a guardian may be ap- pointed to exercise include selling, letting or mortgag- ing the person’s property, making investments, ex- ecuting deeds, discharg- ing debts, or conducting legal proceedings on their behalf. However, they are unable to execute a will or exercise a power vested in the missing person as a trustee in relation to anoth- er person’s property. Roythornes Court of Pro- tection has a long pedi- gree of advising deputies and attorneys in Court of Protection matters and is, therefore, best placed to advise on the traumatic circumstances requiring these sorts of applications. Roythornes can also offer the services of Roythornes Trustees Limited as ap- pointee is appropriate cases. For more informa- tion visit www.roythorne. co.uk and contact the private client team on 01775 842505 or follow @ roythornes on Twitter.