The PL SA has submitted comments on a draft law allowing the sobriety of parliamentarians
The President of the Personal Data Protection Office, Mirosław Wróblewski, has submitted comments on a parliamentary draft law amending the law on the performance of the mandate of deputies and senators and the law on the Marshal's Guard. The aim of the regulation is to enable the testing of members of parliament and senators for alcohol content in their bodies using electronic devices that measure the concentration of alcohol in exhaled air.
Information about the presence of alcohol in the human body constitutes personal data concerning health within the meaning of Article 4(15) of the GDPR. Therefore, the proposed solutions must comply with the standards for the processing and protection of personal data.
The opinion refers to amendments to the acts on the performance of the mandate of a member of parliament and senator and on the Marshal's Guard, which provide for the introduction of sobriety tests for parliamentarians.
The Personal Data Protection Office pointed out that a controller who, on the basis of the proposed provisions, will process health data in the form of information about the presence of alcohol in the body of a member of parliament or senator, will be processing special categories of data as specified in Article 9(1) of the GDPR. Any processing of such data requires the conditions set out in Article 9(2) of the GDPR to be met.
An increased standard of protection for health data is required for the processing of such data, as it involves an increased risk of violating the rights and freedoms of data subjects. The protection of health data is not absolute, but its processing may only take place in strictly defined cases for the purposes necessary and specified in the GDPR, and only in accordance with the rules on the processing of personal data set out in Article 5 of the GDPR.
Privacy test
The President of the Personal Data Protection Office pointed to the need to subject the proposed solutions to a privacy test along with an assessment of their impact on data protection. The collection of personal data of members of parliament and senators revealing their health status, but also their current physical condition or addictions, requires particularly thorough analysis.
The privacy test would make it easier for the legislator to conduct a risk analysis for the rights and freedoms of individuals whose personal data will be processed, as well as to verify the necessity of introducing specific solutions and assess the scope of necessary data.
It should be recalled that the discussion on the processing of personal data during sobriety checks took place during the amendment of the Labor Code, when the act was expanded to include, among other things, the provisions of Articles 221c-221g regulating the testing of employees for the presence of alcohol or substances similar to alcohol in their bodies. Similarly, Article 50a of the Act on the Marshal's Guard introduced provisions concerning the testing of Marshal's Guard officers for the presence of alcohol or other substances with similar effects in their bodies. The President of the Personal Data Protection Office pointed out that the provisions of these acts contain solutions that protect the personal data and privacy of natural persons, and also specify how such tests are to be carried out in order to ensure respect for the dignity and privacy of the persons tested.
Necessary changes
The draft law in its current form violates a number of principles set out in Article 5 of the GDPR. For this reason, the President of the Personal Data Protection Office pointed out the need to supplement the draft law with, among other things:
- a specification of the purpose for which the test will be conducted and, consequently, what personal data of members of parliament and senators will be collected,
- a regulation in the provisions of the law of the catalog of personal data that will be processed during the test,
- indication of the procedures for documenting the conduct of the examination, the conditions for storing the examination documentation, and the data retention period,
- specification of the manner in which the examination will be conducted, which should take into account the dignity and right to privacy of the person being examined,
- indication of the technical conditions to be met by the device used for sobriety testing.
DPNT.401.401.2025