Brentford Dock archiving, lead director for this project is Leslie Anne Ferber. Leslie Anne Ferber describes herself as an “Independent Information Services Professional” and who in a Julius Court & Marcus Court residents block meeting stated that she has 30 years of experience in archiving.
During block meeting discussions about the Brentford Dock archiving of documents and Brentford Dock and Michael Richards & Co.s handling of data, it was established that the archivists employed by Brentford Dock had not initially signed confidentiality agreements for the handling of the documents, which was shocking. It was subsequently made known to residents in a Julius & Marcus Court block meeting that there were no confidentiality agreements in place with the West Thames College students who we were lead to believe conducted this archiving process as work experience for their course under Leslie Anne Ferber’s supervision.
Paul Booth Brentford Dock director for Julius & Marcus Courts (Principal Programme Engineer Network Rail, chair Brentford Dock “finance committee”) and Wendy Booth minutes secretary recorded the following for the Block meeting minutes (1): (PDB refers to Paul Booth and LF refers to Leslie Anne Ferber)
“Archiving. – PDB & LF reported at the July ’14 meeting that a large quantity of historic documentation on BDL and BDEL business is being indexed and catalogued over the summer, this amounts to approximately 70 boxes. A retention policy is also being developed. The security and confidentiality of personal data contained in these documents was queried. LF explained that the documents are being treated with due regard to confidentiality and are being kept in a locked store. A further question was raised about handling of personal data generally and whether office staff were registered as Data Controllers under the DPA.
PDB/LF took an action to investigate these concerns and to report back.
[July ’14 Post Meeting Note – the staff working on the archiving project have all signed confidentiality agreements. BDL and BDEL are both registered as Data Controllers with ICO. The ICO records of registered Data Controllers are publicly accessible. In addition MR & Co has its own data protection policy. These measures are considered by PDB and LF to adequately address the requirements of the DPA].
October ’14 Update. PDB to ask LF to make a copy of the catalogue available to Directors.
February ’15 Update – not discussed.
May ’15 Update – not discussed.
October ’15 Update – LF reported that cataloging is ongoing. It was agreed that this item could now be closed.
[Post Meeting Note – Clarification to previous minutes in relation to the confidentially agreements signed by the external archivists, it is confirmed that these agreements were put in place subsequent to the query raised at the July 14 meeting. Note that the confidentiality agreements apply retrospectively to include all confidential papers seen by the archivists from the commencement of their employment with BDL.]”
How is it possible for any outside party to have access to any private and confidential site data without confidentiality agreements being in place?
In a response to queries following a Subject Access Request (SAR) by Brentford Dock residents, Jordans Corporate Law (Vistra) now Vistra Corporate Law wrote (2016) on behalf of Brentford Dock Limited (“BDL”) – “There exists archived electronic data held by BDL in a format which is not searchable and which has therefore not been provided. In order to search these records BDL would need to engage a technical specialist to reformat the documents before commencing any searches. BDL is unable to provide you with these archived records as it would be disproportionate effort having regard to the expense of engaging a specialist,…” days later Simon Bates of Jordans Corporate Law on behalf of BDL wrote, “the format of these files is such that they are unsearchable, so the search could not be properly completed. In order to carry out a full search to retrieve any of this archive data, BDL would have to engage an IT specialist who would need to reformat thousands of files.”
Veronica Mary Wray, Brentford Dock chair instructed Jordans Corporate Law to act for Brentford Dock Ltd.
Jordans Corporate Law acting on behalf of Brentford Dock Ltd provided a late and, therefore, unlawful Subject Access Request in breach of the Data Protection Act as determined by the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Residents and shareholders would like to know how is it possible in the digital age we live in for Leslie Anne Ferber a person with 30 years archiving experience, assisted by librarian students who were apparently using the exercise as work experience, to produce a database/archive, which according to Jordans Corporate Law on behalf of Brentford Dock Ltd, would need reformatting in order to make it searchable, and after it was stated in a block meeting that the archive was being indexed and catalogued?
It is hoped, but cannot be assumed that the Brentford Dock Ltd directors voting on the Brentford Dock archiving issue voted unanimously for an archive where data is easily retrievable with no additional expense to Brentford Dock Ltd (“BDL”) or Brentford Dock Enterprises Ltd (“BDEL”). From information provided by Jordans Corporate Law/Vistra Corporate Law at the instruction of the Brentford Dock board this sadly appears not to be the case.
What role did Michael Richards & Co. (“MR&Co”) play in this as data processors for BDL? John Antrobus we have been told is the registered data processor for BDL with the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”). Somebody within these two organisations (“BDL”, “MR&Co”) on the basis of what we are being lead to believe by Jordans Corporate Law (“Vistra”) on behalf of the Brentford Dock Ltd board (of which Veronica Wray (VW) is chairman and Mike Edwards (ME) deputy chairman) must have realised that what they were doing would prove to be unfit for purpose. Are residents being told the truth?
In regard to the Brentford Dock archiving, why would anybody, Veronica Wray, Mike Edwards, Prof. Chris Birch and the rest of the Brentford Dock board create and pay for an archive that is not fit for purpose? If what is being told by Jordans Corporate Law/Vistra Corporate Law on behalf of Brentford Dock is in fact the case.
Was this simply a ploy not to provide residents (who had requested a SAR) with data to which they are entitled under the Data Protection Act?
Veronica Wray (it is believed, has been a director or chairman throughout the duration of the Brentford Dock archiving project), Paul Booth and Leslie Anne Ferber, have refused to answer questions raised regarding this matter. Paul Booth has stated that Leslie Ferber has taken “advice”, presumably from Counsel, this statement, however, cannot be assumed to be true.
Shareholders may also wish to know how much this whole process has cost them.
This matter is still is being pursued and has yet to be resolved.
Notes/ Source:
(1) Julius & Marcus Block Meeting Minutes 7 October 2015 Archiving Point 31