Breach of Crown Copyright.

[pelham9]

Having recently been asked by a solicitor's clerk to identify myself by posting copies of my driving licence and passport I googled for Crown Copyright and came up with the following

 

1/ It is a breech of Crown Copyright to copy a driving licence in any form.

 

2/ It is a breech of Cown Copyright to copy a passport except for the details page (the one with the photo) which however may only be copied in black and white.

 

Is this of interest? I think particularly of those institutions demanding copies of these items when delaying a S.A.R - (Subject Access Request)

[rory32]

Where did you get this info from Pelham9?

[pelham9]

Rory 32

 

Good question!

 

I got my information from the HMSO website at the end of June 2007.

I have slightly changed the wording as the site was subject to Crown Copyright but what I wrote is correct.

 

Unfortunately the HMSO site has been taken over by the Office of Public Sector Information Office of Public Sector Information and the information is not now at all clear, If you search the site you will find that their are no waivers of copyright for passports and driving licences. Clearly a financial institute who has a licence can reproduce your documents but they must tell you they will do so and the site warns that you should not allow this if in any doubt of their security. There does not now seem to be a waiver to copy any part of a passport (whether in black and white or not) as prevoiusly. So a customer should not be asked to do so unless of course he does have a licence - highly unlikely.

 

But does it matter?

[pelham9]

From OPSI today

Thank you for getting back to use. The re-use of the details page of the British Passport is not permitted and there is no waiver on the re-use of this information. You may take a copy of the details page of your own passport in EITHER black and white or colour, for the purposes of personal record-keeping. Banks and building societies may also request and/or make copies for the purposes of compliance with the Money Laundering Regulations. There are no other permitted re-uses.

So colour copies at the request of a bank for money laundering purposes are allowed in colour! This has changed in the last three months.

[joebloggs]

A lot of employers are now requiring employees and potential emplyees to take copies of passports and other forms of ID as part of their checks for eligabilty to work in the UK.

Some will even tell you it is a requirement.

[Conniff]

A lot of employers are now requiring employees and potential emplyees to take copies of passports and other forms of ID as part of their checks for eligabilty to work in the UK.

Some will even tell you it is a requirement.

 

 

Probably because the employers have been mislead by bad wording in their instructions from the government department.

 

Why can't these departments say things in 'plain English'.

[gyzmo]

Because their training is so crap. It's usually a clear, intelligible, logical and reasonable instruction that eminates from the top. as it gets past through the chain of managers and trainers (or "champions") the message slowly but surely gets so distorted as to completely be disassociated from what was originally intended (sorry - you've got me going now so I'm gonna carry on!). This is witnessed by myself working at Direct Line when some numpty (funnily enough working in the "better practice department") decided that glass damage due to vandalism was not covered as it was not accidental. My cries of "as far as the insured in concerned" fell on deaf ears until I called the chief underwriter (who was not too chuffed at an underling such as me speaking to him and even less chuffed at the decision that the aforementioned numoty had taken and everyone else who took it as gospel). The decree was quickly abandoned.

 

such is the case with organisations that take a top down management approach (or use call centres).

 

I doubt that the Crown or IPO would come down on someone for photocopying their passport / driving licence etc as proof of ID for a job. But it does raise an interesting question in terms of data protection. Copies of such documents flying around is just asking for ID theft.

[BankFodder]

Crown Copyright lasts 125 years. I can't imagine that the copying which you are referring to isn't a permitted act. I wouldn't worry about it

[ScarletPimpernel]

I can see this being of some use in responding to DCAs who demand adriving licences or passports as proof of identity in ID theft cases.

[buzby]

Only of use insofar as continuing the agony as they will take failure to comply as proof of skulduggery. My most recent instance was last week when a new insurer wanted me to photocopy my Driving Licence and counterpart to 'prove' that I had inadvertently forgotten to tell them about any penalty points.

 

My issue was the last thing I should be doing is sending documents in the post providing all this sensitive data, which could cause mayhem - and that's BEFORE it even reaches the insurer. Once there, what guarantees are there that the photocopy will be used for this one-time verification and then destroyed? None. It'll be stored and then my details continue to be compromised down the line.

 

I pointed out that nothing has changed, if they find I DO have points when I declared I had none, they can cancel the policy from the date of inception without a qualm, indeed they can STILL do this even if I did provide the required photocopy, so whose benefit is it REALLY for. The response I got was; 'No docs, no policy". I said fine, I'll go elsewhere. I then got the policy documents through.

 

Ever had a feeling we're just being conned?