Disciplinary Investigation At Work Data Breach

A disciplinary investigation at work data breach involving your personal information could cause you psychological and financial harm. In this guide, we will define what a personal data breach is and explain what information of yours may be processed during a disciplinary investigation at work. Moreover, we will discuss the limitation periods relating to claiming data breach compensation and highlight the evidence that could be used to support your claim.

Disciplinary Investigation At Work Data Breach Claims Guide

Furthermore, we will outline how legal professionals could value compensation for the damage you have suffered due to a personal data breach. We also distinguish between the different kinds of damage that could be awarded for a successful claim.

Continue reading this guide for information about whether you could claim compensation for a personal data breach and learn more about what it means to enter into a No Win No Fee agreement with a solicitor. You can also contact our team of advisors if you require further guidance regarding your potential claim. They are available all day, every day, to provide you with free legal advice.

Please reach our team using one of the methods below:

Call an advisor on 0800 073 8804
Contact us online
Use the live support feature below

Select A Section

What Is A Disciplinary Investigation At Work Data Breach?

Your employer will process and store your personal data. This may include your name, home address, phone number, and email address. Additionally, information recorded in a disciplinary investigation about you is considered personal data. This can contain information about your behaviour and potentially include opinions of you.

Data protection laws are in place to protect the storage and use of personal data in both digital and physical forms. The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) outline the rules for processing personal data. These apply to data controllers and processors.

A data controller decides how and why your personal information is processed, whereas data processors can be employed by a controller to process personal data on their behalf.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent body responsible for upholding information rights, describes a personal data breach broadly as a security incident affecting the confidentiality, availability or the integrity of personal data.

An employer’s failure to adhere to data protection laws could cause a personal data breach. This could mean that personal disciplinary information is compromised, resulting in the data subject suffering from psychological harm, such as stress, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Also, a personal data breach could lead to financial harm.

Although, employers do have some legal obligations to disclose some of your details on a lawful basis. Information about your salary can be lawfully shared for tax purposes and disclosed to the HMRC.

Please contact our advisors; they can provide advice and carry out an assessment of your potential claim.

Could I Claim For A Disciplinary Investigation At Work Data Breach?

There is a criteria of eligibility that must be met to make a disciplinary investigation at work data breach claim following the compromise of your personal information.

This is as follows:

A data controller or processor responsible for your personal data failed to uphold their legal data protection responsibilities.
As a result of this, your personal information was involved in a data breach.
This caused you to suffer financial losses and/or mental harm.

A personal data breach in relation to a disciplinary investigation at work could occur due to various causes. For example, your employer could send your personal information to the wrong address, resulting in an unauthorised person accessing your personal data.

Alternatively, a data breach may occur if an employee from the HR department discloses details concerning your investigation to another employee.

Data Breach Claim Time Limits

There are time limits that apply to making a claim for a personal data breach. You generally have six years to start a claim. However, if you are claiming against a public body, the time limit to begin your claim is reduced to one year.

Please contact an advisor to learn more about the time limitations relating to your potential personal data breach claim. Also, they can advise you on whether you could have valid grounds to claim.

What Evidence Do I Need To Provide In A Data Breach Claim?

You will need evidence to support your claim that proves failings on the part of the data controller or processor caused the personal data breach.

If your personal data has been involved in a breach that places your rights and freedoms at risk, the data controller must notify you without undue delay. Additionally, they have a responsibility to report the breach to ICO within 72 hours of discovery.

Following the occurrence of a data breach involving your personal information, you could first contact the organisation directly. In the case of a disciplinary investigation at work data breach, this may be your employer. If they do not respond, or their response is unsatisfactory, you could then report the incident to the ICO, who may investigate the breach. It is important to note the ICO cannot award compensation.

Correspondence between yourself and the organisation could be used as evidence for your claim. Additionally, any findings that are in your favour from an investigation by the ICO could be used to support your claim.

To learn more about acquiring evidence in support of your potential personal data breach claim, please speak to one of our advisors.

Potential Compensation For A Disciplinary Investigation At Work Data Breach

Upon making a successful personal data breach claim, you may receive a compensation award covering up to two types of damage. The first of these is non-material damage. This is the psychological harm you suffered due to the personal data breach.

To help value this harm, solicitors can consult the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This is a document containing guideline brackets of compensation for different types of harm, which we have used to create the table below.

Compensation Guidelines

Edit
Injury	Severity	Notes	Compensation Guidelines
Psychiatric Damage	Severe (a)	Marked problems with the person’s ability to cope with life and work. Relationships will be affected and the prognosis will be very poor.	£54,830 to £115,730
Psychiatric Damage	Moderately Severe (b)	Significant problems with the person’s ability to cope with life and work. Relationships will be affected. The prognosis in this bracket is much more optimistic than in the one above.	£19,070 to £54,830
Psychiatric Damage	Moderate (c)	Similar problems as in the brackets above, but there will be marked improvement by trial and the prognosis is good.	£5,860 to £19,070
Psychiatric Damage	Less Severe (d)	The time period of the disability and the extent that it impacted daily activities will be considered.	£1,540 to £5,860
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)	Severe (a)	Effects are permanent and prevent the person from working or at least from operating as they did before the trauma. It will badly affect all aspects of their life.	£59,860 to £100,670
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)	Moderately Severe (b)	The better prognosis for some recovery with the help of a professional separates cases in this bracket from the one above.	£23,150 to £59,860
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)	Moderate (c)	There has been a large recovery and any effects that continue won’t be of a grossly disabling nature.	£8,180 to £23,150
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)	Less Severe (d)	A virtually full recovery is made within one to two years and any continuing symptoms are minor.	£3,950 to £8,180

This table is a guide and not an exact representation of the compensation you may receive.

Additional Forms Of Damage You Could Claim

For a successful personal data breach claim, you may also receive compensation for material damage. This is the financial losses you have suffered due to the personal data breach.

This could include:

Money stolen from your bank accounts
Loss of earnings
Damage to your credit score

Evidence you could use to prove the material damage you suffered can include the following:

Bank records
Payslips
Evidence of your credit history

Speak to one of our advisors to learn how much personal data breach compensation you could be eligible to receive following a disciplinary investigation at work data breach.

Make A Claim With A No Win No Fee Data Breach Solicitor

A solicitor may offer to work on a personal data breach claim under a type of No Win No Fee agreement known as a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA).

Generally, entering into a CFA means there will be no requirement for you to pay for your solicitor’s services upfront, whilst your claim is ongoing or after an unsuccessful claim.

However, your solicitor can deduct a small fee from your compensation if your claim is successful. This is a success fee. The percentage that a solicitor can take is legally capped under The Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013. You will discuss this with your solicitor before entering into an agreement.

To learn more about using a No Win No Fee solicitor, please contact us. Should our advisors find your claim could be eligible, they may put you in contact with one of our No Win No Fee data breach solicitors.

Contact Our Specialist Team

Please do not hesitate to contact us about whether you could claim compensation for a personal data breach.

Our advisors can provide a consultation about your claim. Please reach our team using one of the methods below:

- Call an advisor on 0800 073 8804
- Contact us online
- Use the live support feature below

Learn More About Claiming For Data Breaches In Workplaces

For more of our guides:

For other resources, check the external links listed:

Data Breaches: Guidance For Individuals And Families – National Cyber Security Centre
Find Out What Data An Organisation Has About You – Government Guidance
Action We’ve Taken – ICO

Thank you for reading this guide on when you could claim compensation following a disciplinary investigation at work data breach involving your personal information.