Labour Party Data Breach – Could I Claim Compensation?
By Danielle Jordan. Last Updated 3rd February 2023. This guide looks at what steps you could take should a Labour Party data breach ever occur.
Labour Party Data Breach – Could I Claim Compensation
Firstly, let’s look at what protection your personal data has. The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) is one of two key pieces of legislation that help protect personal data. It sits alongside the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) to keep secure all your personal information. It is vital that those who have a responsibility towards your data abide by these laws to prevent a data breach.
In this guide, we examine personal data and special category data. Additionally, we will discuss what a personal data breach is, as well as how a breach could affect you.
If you decide to claim personal data breach compensation, you may like to hire the services of a solicitor. Further on in this article, we explore No Win No Fee arrangements and how they could benefit you.
Should a personal data breach affect you, you may wonder what steps to take next. To get answers to all your data breach claim questions, get in touch with a member of the data breach team:
- Call 0800 073 8804
- Start a claim online
- Speak to an advisor below
Choose A Topic
- What Could Be A Labour Party Data Breach?
- If A Labour Party Data Breach Occurred, What Data Could Be Involved?
- What Should I Do If A Breach Impacts Me?
- What Should I Do If I Think My Details Were Exposed?
- Calculate Compensation For A Data Breach
- Could No Win No Fee Solicitors Help If A Labour Party Data Breach Happened?
What Could Be A Labour Party Data Breach?
The UK GDPR defines a data breach as a security incident. This could mean that your personal data has been destroyed or altered accidentally or unlawfully. However, it can also mean unauthorised disclosure or access to personal data that is being transmitted, stored or otherwise processed
Data controllers and processors must comply with data protection legislation. Data controllers are in charge of determining why they use your data and how. Then, data processors are an optional third party that can process this data by following the controller’s instructions.
But what is a data breach? The UK GDPR sets out criteria that personal data breach claims must meet to be valid. This includes:
- The breach has to include your personal data
- It must also occur because of the data controller or processor’s wrongful conduct
- The breach has to lead to you experiencing harm. This can be financial harm or mental harm, such as experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
In 2021, the Labour Party released a statement informing Party members that a third-party data processor had suffered a data breach. This has meant that data concerning party members and supporters has become inaccessible.
( Source: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/03/labour-hit-by-cyber-incident-affecting-members-data )
If A Labour Party Data Breach Occurred, What Data Could Be Involved?
A personal data breach can affect a variety of personal information. Personal data is data that can identify you, like your name and home address. However, there is also personal data that is considered of a sensitive nature, known as special category data. We explore both below.
Personal data can include:
- Name
- Address
- Email address
- Phone number
- Bank sort code and account number
Special category data can include:
- Political beliefs
- Race and ethnic background
- Religious beliefs
- Trade union membership
- Sexual orientation
- Health data
Contact our team to discuss further the steps that could be taken following a Labour Party data breach.
Data Breach Claim Time Limits
Now that we’ve explored whether a political opinion is sensitive data as well as other personal data that can be included in a data breach, we are going to explain the time limits. To make a data breach claim, you will need to prove that a personal data breach caused you harm. In addition, you must start your claim within the time limit.
For your personal data’s inclusion in a breach, you must start your claim within:
- One year if the data controller was a public body.
- Six years if the data controller was a non-public body.
In the next section, we explore other time limits affecting data breaches, including when to report to the ICO. We also explain when your personal data’s inclusion in a data breach should be reported to you.
For more information about what steps you could take should a Labour Party data breach occur and effect you personal data, call our advisors 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The advice they give is free and without further obligation.
What Should I Do If A Breach Impacts Me?
An organisation should alert you without undue delay if your data is involved in a personal data breach and it could impact your rights or freedoms. Also, they must inform the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) of the breach within 72 hours.
When an organisation notifies you of a breach, it may tell you what data was impacted and how. Additionally, you can contact the organisation yourself to ask for more information. For example, you can ask how the data breach occurred and what the organisation is doing to put it right. If the organisation were to notify you of a data breach with an email, this email could be used as evidence for your claim should you wish to pursue data breach compensation.
You can complain to the organisation if you do not receive notification of a breach but still believe your details have been compromised. However, if they don’t respond, or if their response isn’t satisfactory, you can take your complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is an independent body set up to protect data security. As part of their role, they can investigate data security incidents and issue fines. But, you must contact them within three months of your last meaningful contact with the organisation.
Contact our team for further information should you have evidence that a Labour Party data breach has occurred and has caused you harm.
Calculate Compensation For A Data Breach
Two heads of loss could form your data breach compensation. You could be compensated for the material damage you have suffered, which can recover the financial losses, whereas non-material damage is the mental harm you experience.
For example, the stress of experiencing a personal data breach can lead to suffering significant psychiatric injuries. These can include anxiety, depression, and distress.
You can get a broad idea of what you could potentially receive from a successful non-material damage claim by using the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This document helps legal professionals when they value compensation claims by providing guideline settlement amounts. You can find some examples of these amounts in the table below.
| Injury | Severity | Compensation Bracket | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychiatric injury | Severe (a) | £54,830 – £115,730 | The claimant struggles to cope with life and relationships. At this severity. |
| Psychiatric injury | Moderately severe (b) | £19,070 – £54,830 | Significant problems coping with life and in relationships occurs. The prognosis, however, is more optimistic than in a severe psychiatric injury. |
| Psychiatric injury | Moderate (c) | £5,860 – £19,070 | The claimant will make improvements in their ability to cope with life and relationships with a good prognosis. |
| Psychiatric injury | Less severe (d) | £1,540 – £5,860 | A period of time where the claimant’s daily life and sleep are disrupted due to a psychiatric injury occurs. |
| PTSD | Severe (a) | £59,860 – £100,670 | An injury this severe results in a permanent inability for the claimant to function at the same levels as prior to the trauma. All areas of their life are impacted. |
| PTSD | Moderately severe (b) | £23,150 – £59,860 | A professional may help the claimant make some recovery. However, they will experience significant disability into the foreseeable future. |
| PTSD | Moderate (c) | £8,180 – £23,150 | The claimant largely makes a recovery, however, some symptoms that are not grossly disabling remain. |
| PTSD | Less severe (d) | £3,950 – £8,180 | The claimant makes a virtual full recovery, however, some small symptoms might persist beyond 1-2 years. |
Material damage compensation can help you recover the financial losses a breach may cause. For example, if your credit card details are exposed, money could be stolen from your accounts or debt built up in your name, which can lead to damage to your credit score.
Get in touch with our advisors today for a free evaluation of your claim and what it could be worth. They can also offer free legal advice and further guidance surrounding compensation claims.
Could No Win No Fee Solicitors Help If A Labour Party Data Breach Happened?
Our expert solicitors can help if you have experienced harm following a personal data breach. Under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA), you can benefit from legal representation, generally without paying upfront or ongoing fees to your solicitor. The only fee your solicitor will take comes as a success fee. Your solicitor will take this as a small percentage with a legal cap. But, if your claim does not succeed, then you won’t pay this fee.
Get in touch with a member of our team to find out if you have a valid claim and learn how one of our No Win No Fee solicitors could help you:
- Call 0800 073 8804
- Start a claim online
- Speak to an advisor below
Related Claims Guides
Here are some data breach resources:
Further reading:
- Reporting a Data Breach
- I Suffered Stress Due to a Data Breach, Can I Claim?
- A Company Misused My Personal Data, Can I Sue?
Get in touch with our advisors to learn more about the steps you could take should your personal information be compromised if a Labour Party data breach occurred.
Written by Brown
Edited by Hampton
