Data Protection (Amendment) Act 2003

Additional functions of Commissioner.

10.—Section 9 of the Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following subsections after subsection (1):

“(1A) (a)  The lawfulness of the processing of personal data (including their transmission to the Central Unit of Eurodac established pursuant to the Council Regulation) in accordance with the Council Regulation shall be monitored by the Commissioner.

(b) In paragraph (a) of this subsection, ‘the Council Regulation’ means Council Regulation (EC) No. 2725/2000 of 11 December 2000(2) concerning the establishment of Eurodac for the comparison of fingerprints for the effective application of the Dublin Convention.

(1B) The Commissioner shall arrange for the dissemination in such form and manner as he or she considers appropriate of—

(a)  any Community finding (within the meaning of subsection (2)(b) (inserted by the Act of 2003) of section 11 of this Act),

(b)  any decision of the European Commission or the European Council under the procedure provided for in Article 31(2) of the Directive that is made for the purposes of paragraph 3 or 4 of Article 26 of the Directive, and

(c)  such other information as may appear to him or her to be expedient to give to data controllers in relation to the protection of the rights and freedoms of data subjects in respect of the processing of personal data in countries and territories outside the European Economic Area.

(1C) The Commissioner shall be the supervisory authority in the State for the purposes of the Directive.

(1D) The Commissioner shall also perform any functions in relation to data protection that the Minister may confer on him or her by regulations for the purpose of enabling the Government to give effect to any international obligations of the State.”.

(2) O.J. No. L 316, 15.12.00, p. 0001-0010.