Information Law
The Cornerstone Barristers Information Law team has been involved in some of the most important and high profile cases in the past few years including Professor David Carroll v Cambridge Analytica, Maurizi v Information Commissioner, Cooper v National Crime Agency and Stunt v Associated Newspapers Ltd.
Members provide advice on complex information law and data protection issues to both private and public sector clients, and they regularly appear in the higher courts and tribunals. This ensures that they are always in a position to give swift, practical advice in this highly technical area.
The team has particular expertise in data breaches, profiling, big data and AI, individual rights including access rights, right to rectification and right to be forgotten, environmental information requests and FOI requests.
The junior members also provided advice and assistance to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport on various issues arising in respect of the Data Protection Bill 2018. They were subsequently instructed in matters concerning the Data Protection Act 2018, including assisting with the implementation of changes to the Data Protection Act 2018 that will be necessitated by Brexit.
Members are public law barristers with a wide range of cross-sector expertise. This means that they are able to advise on all aspects of a case, where data protection or information law may only represent one of the issues.
This most often arises in the overlap between planning law and access to environmental information but can also be seen in the cross-over between this area of practice and election law, social care records and housing law issues.
Members of our team also regularly provide comprehensive training to clients in order to assist them in complying with their various obligations under GDPR, FOI, EIR and PECR. In this regard, several members provide expert training on behalf of PDP in both data protection law and freedom of information and they are regular contributors to the Freedom of Information Journal.
Our expertise
- The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
- Data Protection Act 2018
- Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR)
- Freedom of Information Act 2000
- Environmental Information Regulations 2004
- Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000
- Investigatory Powers Act 2016
- Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014
- Confidentiality and privacy at common law
- Articles 8 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights
- EU rules on access to information held by European Institutions
- Aarhus Convention rights
Recent Cases
- Maurizi v ICO and CPS [2019] UKUT 262 (AAC)
- Cooper v National Crime Agency [2019] EWCA Civ 16
- Professor David Carroll v Cambridge Analytica
- Maurizi v ICO and Metropolitan Police Service EA/2018/0071
- Stunt v Associated Newspapers Ltd [2018] EWCA Civ 1780
- Ittihadieh v 5-11 Cheyne Gardens RTM Co Ltd [2017] EWCA Civ 121
- Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority v Information Commissioner [2015] EWCA Civ 388
Main publications
- Philip Coppel KC, Information Rights. A Practitioner’s Guide to Data Protection, Freedom of Information and other Information Rights (5th edn, Hart, 2020). Book review, Mapping the information rights landscape by Kate Brimsted.
- Damian Welfare, Cornerstone on Information Law (Bloomsbury, 2019).
- Damien Welfare and Estelle Dehon KC authored Territorial Scope and Terminology and Fair, Lawful, and Transparent Processing in Peter Carey, Data Protection. A Practical Guide to UK and EU Law (6th edn, OUP, 2020).
Articles in the Freedom of Information Journal
News
- How can data and A.I. be used responsibly in the public sector?11 Jul 2023
- Impact of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) on democracy15 Jun 2023
- Recent decisions of the Commissioner and Tribunals17 May 2023
- Legal threat over deletion of sensitive Number 10 party WhatsApp messages12 Jan 2022
- Who will rid me of these troublesome data protection claims? Defending data protection litigation26 Nov 2021
Cases
- Islington CCTV system declared lawful04 Jul 2023
- Suffering, damage, the GDPR – and all that05 May 2023
- Data protection claim settles with majority of defendant’s costs recovered17 Aug 2022
- Tribunal hearing appeal of MPS’s decision to block access to information about possible investigation of journalists on national security and counter-terrorism grounds09 Jul 2021
- Heathrow Airport Ltd v Information Commissioner28 Jun 2021