Over cautious interpretation of the Data Protection Act 1998 by social services departments is preventing information from being shared with other agencies, a senior civil servant has said, writes Derren Hayes.

Paul Boyle, head of the information rights division (responsible for the DPA, data sharing and freedom of information policy) at the Department for Constitutional Affairs, said misconceptions about the onerous nature of the act led many social care professionals to think it prohibits them from passing on certain information on clients.

However, he told delegates at a conference that the act allowed data sharing as long as actions were carried out in the public interest, and that decisions had taken human rights and common law legislation into account.

“There is a whole mass of issues around data sharing - including organisational and cultural barriers - and professionals try and put it down to one thing, the DPA.

"Anything to do with personal data will tend to be referred to lawyers and understandably they will err on the side of caution,” he said.