The Data Protection (Corporate Finance Exemption) Order 2000

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

The Data Protection Act 1998 imposes certain obligations on data controllers to give data subjects information about the processing of personal data and to give access to personal data. By virtue of section 27(2) of that Act, the provisions imposing these obligations are referred to as “the subject information provisions”. Paragraph 6 of Schedule 7 to the Act creates an exemption from these provisions where, inter alia, the exemption is required for the purpose of safeguarding an important economic or financial interest of the United Kingdom.

This Order provides that the inevitable prejudicial effect on the orderly functioning of financial markets or the efficient allocation of capital within the economy resulting from the occasional or regular application of the subject information provisions to certain data is a matter to be taken into account in determining whether exemption from the subject information provisions is required for the purpose of safeguarding an important economic or financial interest of the United Kingdom. The data in question are data to which the application of the subject information provisions could, in the reasonable belief of the relevant person as defined, affect decisions whether to deal in, subscribe for or issue instruments or decisions which are likely to affect any business activity.

This Order contributes to the implementation of Directive 95/46/EC on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data.

A Regulatory Impact Assessment was prepared for the Data Protection Bill as it was then and the statutory instruments to be made under it, and was placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament. The Regulatory Impact Assessment is now available on the internet at www.homeoffice.gov.uk. Alternatively, copies can be obtained by post from the Home Office, LGDP Unit, 50 Queen Anne’s Gate, London, SW1H 9AT.