Outcomes - Selected Case Summaries
Categories
Job references not held
Informal Resolution | 25 October 2022
A complainant was dissatisfied with the response provided by Customs and Border Control (CBC) to a subject access request pertaining to job references. The data controller processed the request by applying the FOI Act despite the request explicitly being filed as a subject access request, which should have been resolved under the DPA.
The data controller claimed not to hold any records pertaining to the request. We confirmed that CBC did not hold the records requested and that there was no record of a verbal reference being provided. We also confirmed that personnel files are not being held by the CBC but by the Ministry of Finance & Economic Development, which had already provided the complainant with a response. We also advised the complainant to file a subject access request from possible recipients of job references.
Since the requested personal data were held, we closed the complaint as it did not raise any matter of substance.