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Disciplinary Records Data Breach Compensation Claims

By Lewis Cobain. Last Updated March 2024. In this guide, we explore how you could make a disciplinary records data breach claim.

Disciplinary records data breach

A guide on claiming for a disciplinary records data breach

On this page, you will find information on how a data breach can occur and how much compensation you could be entitled to.

If you’d like to discuss claiming with Legal Expert today, or if you have any questions about the process, you can:

Select A Section

  1. What Is A Disciplinary Records Data Breach?
  2. Your Right To Data Protection In The Workplace
  3. How Employees’ Data Should Be Protected
  4. My Dismissal Was Disclosed In A Data Breach, Could I Claim?
  5. Disciplinary Records Data Breach Settlement Calculator
  6. Make A No Win No Fee Data Breach Claim

What Is A Disciplinary Records Data Breach?

Disciplinary records may include witness statements, emails, computer records, hearing notes, outcome letters, and appeal paperwork.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) defines a data breach as the unauthorised accessing, disclosure, alteration or destruction of personal data whether through accident or deliberately. It can also include the loss of personal data. 

A disciplinary records data breach may occur in the following instances;

  • Your records are kept in an unsecured location and an unauthorised person accesses them because of this.
  • Online security is substandard so cyber attackers are able to steal your personal data.
  • Your disciplinary record is lost and unable to be retrieved.

Workplace Data Breach Statistics

The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2021 is an annual survey conducted by the government to identify data breaches or attacks. 

Below, you can find workplace data breach statistics from the last 12 months:

  • Four in ten businesses (39%) reported having a cyber security breach or attack
  • Unauthorised access to files or networks by staff accounted for 2% of cyber breaches to businesses
  • Around a quarter of businesses (27%) said that breaches or attacks were happening weekly

Legal Expert are here to help you with any questions on a disciplinary records data breach. If you consider making a claim, contact us via our claims form.

Your Right To Data Protection in The Workplace

The Data Protection Act 2018 introduced General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to the UK to protect the personal data and privacy of British people, including in the workplace. It sits alongside the UK GDPR. 

The UK GDPR lays out seven principles for upholding your personal data protection in the workplace. 

  1. Accuracy: Employers must keep data updated and accurate.
  2. Limitation of storage: Data should be stored for the minimum period necessary for the purpose it is held for.
  3. Transparency, lawfulness and fairness: It is an employer’s responsibility to be transparent with their employees about the processing of their data and how it will be processed fairly and lawfully. 
  4. Accountability: Employers must show compliance.
  5. Limitation of purpose: The purpose of why data is being processed should be explicitly specified by an employer.
  6. Minimisation of data: Data should only be collected for necessary purposes.
  7. Confidentiality and integrity: Data processing should not risk confidentiality, integrity or security.

If you have been subjected to a disciplinary records data breach and suffered mental injury or financial loss as a result, you may be able to claim. Why not get in touch?

How Employees’ Data Should Be Protected

Employers must pay special attention to the use and retention of employee data. Employers should destroy data in line with a schedule they have set. A privacy notice may be in place to set this out.

A clear procedure on handling expired disciplinary sanctions should be in place, and appropriate limits on who can access your disciplinary record. Otherwise, a disciplinary records data breach may happen.

Moreover, once you have resolved the matter, your manager may need to return or destroy any paperwork associated with your disciplinary sanction. However, your employer may retain a single central record so that no one can access it without a legitimate reason.

An employer that terminates your contract should record the reasons why. After terminating employment, your employer should retain all disciplinary records for at least six months.

If you have been subjected to an employer data breach, get in touch today.

My Dismissal Was Disclosed In A Data Breach, Could I Claim?

Before making a claim, it is important to determine whether you are eligible. Consider the following ahead of suing your employer for a disciplinary records data breach:

  • Firstly, did a personal data breach at work affect you?
  • Secondly, did you incur any financial losses or suffer from psychiatric problems, such as stress, after a data breach?
  • Lastly, was your employer’s wrongful conduct the cause of the breach? (For example, they may not have provided appropriate data protection training to staff, which led to the breach.)

Additionally, your dismissal will fall under ‘special category data’, which accounts for personal information relating to you that is especially sensitive. A data breach may lead to the disclosure of your dismissal, meaning you could face discrimination. 

You may consider contacting your employer to address your concerns. It would be useful to outline any distress they have caused you and how much compensation you expect in return. Subsequently, their response could provide evidence in any case against them.

It may also be in your best interest to report a data breach incident to the ICO if the employer hasn’t yet done this.

The ICO cannot provide compensation; however, they could investigate whether your employer has breached data protection laws and can issue a monetary penalty. Their findings could be key to making a successful claim.

If you are ready to make a claim now, give Legal Expert a call.

Disciplinary Records Data Breach Settlement Calculator

There are two types of damages under the Data Protection Act 2018.

Firstly, there is material damage and that covers any financial losses you have suffered as a result of a disciplinary records data breach. Evidence you could use to support your claim includes a bank account statement or credit rating.

In addition, non-material damage covers the psychological harm caused by a data breach. For example, if you suffer Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of your disciplinary record being breached. 

Furthermore, a case at the Court of Appeal, Vidal-Hall and others v Google Inc (2015), held that, after a data breach, you don’t need to have suffered financially to claim for psychological harm. Before this case, you could only claim for psychological harm if you’d also suffered financially. Now, you can claim for one or both damages.

In that way, we can use guidelines from the Judicial College to estimate compensation settlements. Legal professionals use these guidelines to help when valuing injuries.

Edit
Injury Severity Injury Bracket Notes
General Psychiatric Damage Severe £51,460 to £108,620 Your ability to cope with life and work will be an ongoing problem. Prognosis will be very poor.
General Psychiatric Damage Moderate £5,500 to £17,900 There is an improvement by the time of the trial and the prognosis is good.
General Psychiatric Damage Less Severe £1,440 to £5,500 The extent to which your daily activities and sleep are affected determine the level of award in this bracket.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Severe £56,180 to £94,470 There are permanent effects which have an impact on your ability to work.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Moderate £7,680 to £21,730 You will likely have fully recovered and any ongoing effects will not impact all aspects of your life

Our team of advisors can offer expert advice. Use the live feature chat at the bottom of this page to speak to someone now. 

Make A No Win No Fee Data Breach Claim

If your personal data was compromised in a disciplinary records data breach, and you meet the eligibility criteria, one of our professional solicitors may be able to help you with your personal data breach compensation claim.

Our solicitors have experience with various types of data breach claims, and may offer to represent you in yours under a type of No Win No Fee arrangement, known as a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). Under this agreement, you will not need to pay your solicitor anything upfront or during the process of your claim for their services. Furthermore, you will not need to pay them a fee for their services should your claim fail.

In the event of a successful claim, you will pay your solicitor a legally capped success fee, which will be directly deducted from your compensation settlement.

To find out if one of our solicitors could help you with your disciplinary record data breach claim, you can contact our advisors. They can be contacted by

Employment Data Breach Resources

We have provided some additional links below to help you find more information on what to do if you have suffered a disciplinary records data breach.

Taking your case to court and claiming compensation – Guidance from the ICO on how to take your case to court.

Employment status – Government guidance on your employee rights.

The employment practices code – The ICO provides employers with an understanding of how to comply with the Data Protection Act 2018.

Please find some more of our guides below that you may find useful.

Dismissed After An Accident At Work – What to do after being unfairly dismissed at work.

Professional Negligence – How to claim in the event of professional negligence. 

My Personal Data Has Been Lost After A Breach – Find out what you could do if your personal data has been lost after a breach. 

We hope you have learned about what to do in the event of a disciplinary records data breach. Please get in touch if you have any further questions.

Written by Jennings

Edited by Victorine