The Access to Medical Reports Act 1988 governs reports made for employment and insurance purposes by the subject's own medical practitioner and requires the permission of the subject for the report to be made. In addition, this Act entitles the subject to the opportunity to see the medical report before it is forwarded to an employer. Data protection considerations impact on the collection, storage and use of genetic test information by employers and the DPA will extend data protection law in the UK for the first time to certain types of manual records. The handling of genetic test results, which are sensitive personal data, should meet the standards set by the Data Protection principles of fairness and lawfulness. The Act requires that personal data be processed fairly and lawfully.
Processing is defined to include obtaining genetic data.
The Act stipulates the conditions that must be met for sensitive data to be processed 3 . One such condition is that individuals must be made aware of the purposes for which the information is to be used and of any disclosures to third parties which are intended. This should provide some protection to employees and potential employees. 2.5 A difficulty in the employment context is the imbalance of power between the employer and potential employee. However, the Data Protection Registrar advises that the fact that an individual has consented to the processing of their genetic data does not in itself render the processing fair.