Data Legal Obligations
Researchers' attention is drawn in particular to the Legal and Data Requirements sections of The Research Ethics Framework of the Economic and Social Research Council (1.16). This includes reference to the UK Data Protection Act 1998.
'Data must be obtained for specified and lawful purposs; and shall not be processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose; shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive for those purposes; shall be kept up to date; and kept for no longer than is necessary for that purpose; be processed in accordance with the data subject's rights; be kept saft from unauthorised access, accidental loss or destruction; and shall not be transferred to a country outside the European Economic Area unless that country has equivalent levels of protection for personal data' (full details see all of 1.16)
For more information the Data Protection has made the following document available: Data Protection Policy (PDF, 41 KB)