The Data Protection Act 1998

When it comes to document shredding companies, we are often asked:

what does the data protection act say about shredding confidential waste?
does the data protection act state we have to use a shredding company?

Principle 7 of The Data Protection Act 1998 States

Appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data.

Business who process or control personal data need to ensure that they have the correct measures in place to ensure that data is only used for the means in which it was intended, and is not shared with any other parties.

There is no line in the act that says material must be shredded, nor is there a section that states a shredding company must be employed.

The key part of this principle is the APPROPRIATE TECHNICAL & ORGANISATIONAL MEASURES statement.

By adopting a shredding company to destroy all personal data and confidential waste, having this process documented in a contract of services, with waste transfer notes, destruction certificates and duty of care documentation – including an annual audit of destruction processes. A company ensures that they satisfy this part of the act in full and it would be difficult to argue that all appropriate measures had not been taken.

At The Shred Centre we believe the documentation of the destruction process should be put into a company wide information destruction policy also to demonstrate organisational and managerial measures demonstrate company commitment to protecting and destroying all end of life date through secure shredding.

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Some Of Our Clients

Testimonials

The Shred Centre manage the destruction of the paper files we produce on a regular basis, they ensure that we receive our service as and when agreed and that all of our materials are destroyed to the appropriate standard. As legal professionals we take the confidentiality of our clients seriously and the clear document trail and faultless service The Shred Centre have so far provided have been invaluable. Thank you.

Mark. A., Partner SolicitorBirmingham City Centre, weekly shredding service provided.

We have a small accountancy practice of 5 people based in Solihull, we contacted The Shred Centre on a Thursday to find out what shredding option would be best for our business. We discussed a number of options with Leigh over the phone, and she agreed that we could undertake a trial services of one of their secure consoles for 4 weeks to establish if a regular service was most appropriate for us, within the first week we were genuinely amazed at how much time outsourcing our shredding was. Our administrator was able to take off quite a time consuming task from his daily plan which was a great help. Needless to say we signed up for a monthly service after the trial – and what’s best, we didn’t have to pay for the trial once we signed a contract.

David. S. AccountantSolihull, monthly shredding service provided.

We required a clear-out of archive room (basement!) so that we could use it properly, we had 280 archive boxes dating back to 1997 that we needed shredding. We called The Shred Centre on Monday and we had the job completed on Wednesday, very impressed at the quick turn around. Of the three companies we contacted, The Shred Centre were the only company to provide us with a quotation, and date of completion quickly. We had 1 other quotation back on Thursday and are still waiting to hear back from the last shredding company. Thanks for the help.

Wajid. H., Estate & Letting agentHandsworth, archive clearance and destruction via one-off shredding service