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Last update: Friday June 3, 2005 9:44
Dear Chess Organiser,
There has been a delay in the publication of the BCF Grading list on the BCF Website for the reasons set out below. The printed list will be available as normal in August. Within this year’s Game Fee increase determined by the BCF Council was an amount to compensate for expected loss of sales of Grading lists due to Website publication. Because of the delay in Website publication, the BCF Management Board has decided to forego this amount and so the Game Fee charge from 1st September 2004 has been reduced from 44p to 43p per half game.
At the April 2004 Council Meeting it was determined to publish the BCF Grading list on the BCF Website, subject to taking legal advice. I confess that I had seen the legal advice as a formality, sadly I was wrong. The legal advice was that the Grading list information constituted “personal data” and so could not be published on the Website unless every player had been consulted and their consent obtained. This is plainly impractical. There remains the option of making a case to the Information Commission to obtain a ruling that Grading data is not personal data and so be able to publish the list without the need to obtain permission from all players. This is being done but will take at least two months, and there is of course no guarantee of success. As a consequence, it is not possible to publish the Grading list on the BCF Website in the immediate future
In case the Information Commission confirms the legal advice it is necessary to make special arrangements for next season. Consequently, I ask that all organisers of chess events make it clear to entrants that a condition of entry to their event is agreement to a player’s Grading information* being published on the BCF Website. If any player objects to this they will need to contact the BCF Office, so that their details can be withheld from the Website version of the Grading list. This will comply with the legal advice regarding Website publication for the 2005 Grading List. When receiving a Grading file from an organisation, the BCF Grading team will assume that all players concerned have agreed to Website publication.
As a separate issue, the BCF will in due course publish guidelines on Website publication.
Chris Majer
BCF Director of Strategic Planning and Grading
* Player Reference, Name, Club(s), Grading, Previous Grading, Grading Category
1) Q: Who was advice obtained from?
A: Advice was obtained from Croner Consulting. (a company that provides legal advice on employment and health and safety issues for an annual fee.). This is the organisation from which the BCF normally seeks such advice. The same advice as that provided by Croner was received from the Compliance Section of Data Protection
2) Q Why does the list constitute personal information?
A The following is an extract from Guidelines on Website publication: It is more likely that an individual’s name will be ‘personal data’ where the name appears together with other information about the named individual such as address, telephone number or information regarding his hobbies.
3) Q Why is publication in other countries and also by FIDE possible, is the law different?
A What happens to other countries does not seem relevant to the wording of the UK regulations against which we have taken advice. Also relevant is the point identified in the second part of the response to Question 4.
4) Q Why is it permitted to produce the printed list but not the list on the website?
A There are two differences here.
Firstly, the printed list is not made public in the same way. Anyone in the world can access the BCF website. The printed Grading list can only be obtained from the BCF Office or a chess bookseller.
Secondly, there is an expectation that a printed BCF grading list will be produced since it has been happening for fifty years. There could be no such expectation for website publication since this is the first time that the BCF had proposed website publication.
5) Q Why is website publication of other information also not prohibited?
For the “Yearbook” information the BCF already obtains explicit permission to publish details. Other information is covered by “expectations” as mentioned above. However, the advice being sought from the Information Commission will include non-grading issues.