Help Please!

[snork]

Hello, i'm pretty new to this and i'm experiencing my first hiccup. I've sent my SAR (the one from the templates) off to Barclays and got a reasonably prompt reply. However, not only have they sent me the wrong person's statements, i'm also having a bit of difficulty understanding their reply and legitimacy of some of their claims. As i say, they have sent the statements but they refused my request to disclose information regarding manual intervention.

 

Quote: "As regards to your mention of 'manual intervention', the DPA does not oblige the bank to comment about internal policies and procedures. Futhermore, in the context of managing the day to day transactions arising from out of order accounts, the bank does not hold the information you requested in a form that would be covered by the DPA. Whilst aggregated information is retained for statistical purposes, this would not constitute 'personal information' under the DPA and therefore would not be covered by a s.7 DPA subject access request. For the avoidance of doubt, the fact that we do not generally record information in a way that is caught by the provisions of the DPA, is in no way an admission that there was no such manual intervention".

 

Eh?! Is this right or are they trying to fob me off? Don't even know what it means:confused: . I obviously need to write them another letter to request my own statements and i know what to write on this score, but do i need to mention something about the above or are the statements all i really need? Also what do they mean by out of order account, do they mean an account that has been closed as my account is still open at the moment?

 

Sorry if this is a really dim question, but i've had a good look around the site and haven't come across an answer.

 

Help would be much appreciated. Thanks, Snork xx .

[surreylad]

I'm sure that if they have sent you someone else's statements, and you now have someone elses personal information, barclays have broken the Law.

 

It would be great if someone else with better understanding of what to do next could answer but as it proves, no-ones Information is safe with any of these organisations.

 

Further to your quote on the letter, I have seen this a number of times on the threads. Have a look at some of the older (more posts) threads and I am sure it is just something they send to everyone. It is to do with the manual intervention bit of your S.A.R. letter.

[Michael Browne]

Manual intervention: Basiclly what they're saying is 'we're neither confirming or denying any MI took place' so you can take that as none!!

 

Other statements: As Surrey lad says they've broken the law. Write back, explain the situation, ask for your statements, say you will be informing the Information Commisioner of their breach of the DPA. Then put the statements in a sealed envelope with covering letter addressed private and confidential to the a/c holder and a/c no, and hand it in to your branch and ask them to re-direct it to the a/c holder.

[bearo]

Ok as Michael stated quite corretly you need to return these statements, you are duty bound not to withold the info. When returning also send a covering letter explaining how you came to be in receipt of it and quote this website in your corespondance.

 

Follow everything else Mr Browne stated above!

[essjaysea]

The bit about manual intervention is a standard Barclays fob off. In my view, this information should be made available to you under the provisions of the DPA, as it is all personal information that relates to you.

 

However, the reason that manual intervention is referred to in the DPA SAR is to get them to confirm one way or another whether any MI took place. If they confirm that no MI took place, then by implication, they are confirming that that the charges are computer generated, and there is no way that they can justify charging £35 when it only costs them 50p.

 

On the issue of receiving someone else's statements; this is a clear breach of the DPA. I should point this out to them, and remind them that they must send you the correct statements within the 40 day limit set out in your DPA SAR

[Welshman]

Also take a look here . breaking news on the 14th.

[Guest ian cognito]

Ditto all the above, think the only bit of your question is the 'out of order account' reference, this just means it isn't being run as your agreement i.e. unauthorised overdraft etc.

 

Good luck!

[victimnomore]

It may not seem like it, but you've got the answer you need on the manual interventions question. They haven't admitted that they haven't made any such interventions, but claiming that they have no records of interventions covered by the Data Protection Act is just as good. It means they have no evidence to support any future claim that they ever intervened manually on you account.

 

This was the paragraph I used when I needed to reply to this standard letter, perhaps you may find it useful;

With regard to “manual interventions”, my letter required you to disclose evidence of such in relation to my banking business with Barclays. I accept your assurance that there is no such personally identifiable evidence but would remind you that should Barclays produce any such evidence at a later date relating to the period before my S.A.R it would be grounds for immediate complaint to the Information Commissioner.