How GDPR Impacts the Licence Checking Consent Process
23 April 2018
On 25th May 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation came into force, more commonly known as GDPR. The GDPR is a regulation in EU law which protects individual data and privacy. Generally, it is a legal framework which sets guidelines for both collecting and processing the personal and private information from people in the EU. GDPR is considered to be the toughest law on privacy and security and its implementation changed the way companies were able to store, disclose and utilise data.
As a provider of driving licence checks for organisations, dh Licence Check ensured that we were fully compliant with GDPR and we were ready for the change when it came, so our customers would stay compliant when it came to checking employees’ driving licences.
To comply with the new Regulation, DVLA updated the old D796 Driver Consent Form. This was the document originally used for employees to give consent for their employers to check their driving licence. The new form, which complies with GDPR, is called D906 form/ADD Fair Processing Declaration.
Impact
As a result of this official change, which affects all licence checking services, the consent that your employees gave previously was no longer valid, as of the 25th August 2018, which meant that new permission had to be sought from all employees to be able to check their licence.
The change from the D796 form to the new D906 form was made to ensure that drivers completing the form understand who is requesting their licence data, what the data actually is, for what reason it is being requested and how. These changes were made to ensure licence checking remained in line with the new GDPR. The new form expires three years after the form was signed or once the driver leaves the organisation; whichever happens first.
A key aspect of the new GDPR laws was in relation to the storing of personal data; the new laws detailed that data must be stored a secure yet readily accessible environment. For this reason, a lot of licence storing systems are now online and eventually paper driver records may become redundant.
In addition to changes in how driving licence records are obtained and stored, GDPR also meant there would be changes needed in how and what data is shared with suppliers and partner companies. As a fleet manager you would need to not only ensure your own data management processes are in line with GDPR but also that partner companies and suppliers are too.
In order to ensure companies are aware of the GDPR guidelines and being compliant with the legislation, the government produced a full guide to data protection.
Electronic Fair Processing Declaration
If you’re not already using electronic declarations in your organisation, then this may be an excellent option for you to think about switching to as part of this process. All you need is an email address for each employee. You can then request the electronic declaration from all your employees at once, directly from the dashboard.
The employee then completes a short process online to provide the declaration that you need, which is then valid for three years. There is NO paperwork to hand out and collect, NO scanning, NO filing or storing of paper mandates in your office – and you can keep tabs on the progress via the dashboard traffic light system.
If you would like to discuss switching to electronic declarations please click here to request a demo, call us on 01274 511511 or send us an enquiry.
