Introduction of a new Data Protection Bill (GDPR)

The business of the Isle of Man Land Registry is not affected by this aspect of the consultation.

While the Land Registry is in the fortunate position of considering itself to be largely compliant with GDPR principles already, the untested caselaw and lack of Isle of Man specific guidance makes compliance difficult for those needed to implement changes and improvements. 6-12 months should provide adequate time for gaps to be addressed.

The Isle of Man Land Registry performs a vital service in providing secure title to land to the Isle of Man population and business. This service involves the processing and handling of personal data. While there is no doubt that this processing is necessary and proportional within a democratic society and provides and important public service and is indeed a service with a judicial character. The Isle of Man Land Registry seeks legislative declaratory statements that this processing is licit and for such declaration to be worded in clear unambiguous language to remove any misunderstanding arising in the eyes of the public that the data contained in this register can be altered or amended in accordance with GDPR rights of data subjects.

There are also a number of practices which the Isle of Man Land Registry should like to see included into its own governing legislation by inclusion in the proposed suite of legislation which will add clarity to and provide safeguards to the public and their data. Specifically this includes but is not limited to a removal from the Fee Order of a fee for effecting corrections to errors and/or changes in the data held. Clarification is also sought on the inspection rights of members of the public on the data. The Isle of Man Land Registry should like provision to be made for an exempt prejudicial information regime exempting certain specific items of data being made available to the public.

The Isle of Man Land Registry is satisfied that its data protection practices are in accordance with internal registry standards. While the Land Registry is confident that its data policies are compliant with GDPR it is concerned that it is not clear enough from the draft legislation in its application to the Manx context confirming the qualifications on the GDPR principles to a system of Land Registration, Deed Registration and our sister registries where the lawful intention is to create an indelible record subject to legislation. In the case of the Land Registry it plays a role in perfecting title, which is to say, creating a state backed guarantee for registered land. The legislation provides that the documents giving rise to registration and the register itself is open to inspection by the public). Accordingly the GDPR rights Art 15, right of access, art 16, right to rectification, art 18 right to restriction of processing and art 21 right to object can only apply subject to the principle legislation governing Land Registration.
It is relevant to the Land Registry that Art 345 TEU places the system of property ownership outside the competency of the acquis communautaire.. Nevertheless it has also been sometime since Land registration legislation was reviewed and there are certain aspects of practice which the Land Registry feels should be put in place to provide increased safeguards to the data of data subjects.

The Land Registry looks forward to working with the legislative drafting team to progress the following matters:-
i) A declaratory statement that Forms have the same status as Documents for the purposes of the Land Registration Act 1982. This would address a small area of doubt as to whether Forms are publicly searchable under our legislation as the deeds themselves our. We work on the assumption they are but would like to remove any risk of interpretive doubt. [Secondary legislation to be amended]
ii) We currently publish anonymised housing data and wish to continue doing so. This is in accordance with DPA rule as it relates to property rather than personal data. We want to put this practice beyond any GDPR challenge by a declaratory statement in our primary legislation that the practice is licit [Primary legislation to be amended]
iii) We want to allow the submission of “Exempt prejudicial information” forms which have the effect of allowing application for registration to make certain classes of data confidential from third parties (within the DPA and GDPR if not FOI). For example people may (1) wish or (2) have a definite legal requirement for their name to be exempted from search results –for reasons for example of domestic violence proceedings. Or there may be commercial interests to be protected. We think this is desirable in the public interest and would look to add a rule to facilitate this. [We assume this can be addressed by secondary legislation]
iv) We allow searching by name under or rules and want this to be restricted to persons with a legitimate reason -ie that they are the person being searched by, are a crime investigate authority or are instructed by either of the above. [amendment to secondary]
v) We want to allow the sharing of data between registries within the Central Registry. –The Land Registry is part of Central Registry and uses information in the Civil Registry in some of our basis anti-fraud verification processes. As we are one legal entity this ought to be sufficient subject to adequate internal controls. [declaratory –amendment to Central registries bill?]
vi) We seek an express declaration that all functions of the Land Registry in registering title and preserving historic ownership records are lawful purposes (which they are –but we want to avoid challenge on this). The Registrar has very broad powers under s3(2) to “require any person having the custody of any map survey record or book made or kept in pursuance of any enactment to produce the map survey record or book for his inspection”. It is a powerful tool for land registration purposes and to protect the integrity of the register when considering making awards of title for us to be able to have access to other governmental records and this was clearly something the legislators intended. We seek confirmation that this power is not curtailed by any purpose limitations which other department may feel they are required to conform to. We seek a declaratory statement that such a practice is authorised as being part of our official functions. The Public Records Office will be looking for a similar exemption/declaration. We want to facilitate cross-government working with the GDPR regime rather than frustrate it. [declaratory]
vii) We seek a declaration that Land Registry are exempt from the obligation to destroy documents. [declaratory exemption]
viii) We want to remove the current fee on changing and correcting the register for administrative issues like name or address changes. [amendment to a Fee Order]
ix) The Registrar acts in a judicial capacity in hearing and deciding certain matters within the Land Registration jurisdiction. In such matters the work of the Registrar should be protected by the safeguards, exemptions and derogations as apply to judicial matters.