Tag: Sandy Hermiston
Complaints about police fall sharply during 2021
(CNS): The number of complaints received about the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service fell significantly in 2021 compared to the previous year, according to the newly released annual report from the Office of the Ombudsman. Complaints decreased to 28 last year compared to 57 in 2020. Only four of the complaints were resolved after a […]
Bosses warned to keep vaccine info secure
(CNS): The Office of the Ombudsman has said that employers must still abide by the Data Protection Law when meeting the new requirement to ensure staff on work permits are vaccinated. Before they record the COVID-19 vaccine status of expatriate employees, they must make sure they are retaining that information legally and are advised to […]
Fitness centres warned to protect COVID data
(CNS): Gyms, sports clubs and fitness centres have been warned by the ombudsman that they must follow data protection legislation when they check that their clients have either been fully vaccinated or have a negative PCR test to enter their facilities as part of the new COVID-19 rules. The new regulations do not require these […]
Pandemic causes significant drop in FOI requests
(CNS): The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on the number of freedom of information requests made by members of the public last year, according to the Office of the Ombudsman, which released the statistics to mark International Right to Know Day on Tuesday. The number of requests in 2020 was the lowest ever made […]
Cop force ‘reasonable’ to stop man eating drugs
(CNS) The Office of the Ombudsman has found that the level of force used by police officers on a man who was taken to hospital following his arrest, during which he was grabbed by the throat, was not unreasonable. The suspect filed a complaint about the force officers used during his arrest but Ombudsman Sandy […]
Police urged to stop being rude to public
(CNS): The Office of the Ombudsman has urged police officers to treat the public with more respect, because many of the complaints about the RCIPS it is handling are about officers who had been rude to the people they interacted with rather than because they were breaching the rules. In the office’s annual report for […]
DoA ordered to stop taking personal info
(CNS): The Department of Agriculture (DoA) has found itself on the wrong side of the Data Protection Law and is now facing an order from the Office of the Ombudsman to stop taking the personal data it has been collecting from customers without a legal basis and to delete it. Following a complaint last year […]
OfReg ordered to reveal names in gas station tests
(CNS) UPDATED FRIDAY 4:40pm: Efforts by OfReg to protect retail petrol stations that are found selling poor quality fuel have been thwarted by the ombudsman in a major breakthrough for consumers. A freedom of information request had been made for the names of stations selling deficient gas, which were exposed during the regulator’s periodic inspection. […]
School violates staff member’s data rights
(CNS): A private school has been ordered to destroy a recording taken unlawfully at a meeting between a member of staff and a line manager. St Ignatius Catholic School breached the Data Protection Law when it recording a meeting with the individual because consent was ambiguous, not given freely given and without sufficient explanation in […]
Data protection keeps ombudsman busy
(CNS): Data protection issues, from raising awareness to dealing with complaints about potential breaches of the law, are now dominating the work of the Office of the Ombudsman. In a press release marking International Data Protection Day, Ombudsman Sandy Hermiston revealed that in the fifteen months since the law came into effect on 30 September […]
Ombudsman mediated for refugees in need
(CNS): When a group of Cubans, comprising some who have been granted asylum in the Cayman Islands as well as asylum-seekers, held a demonstration this summer at the Government Administration Building in George Town seeking financial help, the Office of the Ombudsman was able to negotiate a resolution without resorting to a full blown inquiry. […]
