Police asking where such and such live....

[justdeno]

I signed the Official Secret Act. That was nearly 20 years ago though. Was told that if I leave I will have to sign another form. A friend of mine who was IHR had to sign this.

[kirstyx]

well i signed the official secrets act when i started in august 2012

What makes you think you have signed the Official Secrets Act. That went out i would think with the old GPO (stand to be corrected though)

What you will have as to your contract of employment is a non disclosure clause, not the Official Secrets Act

[TrueBlueTerrier]

I still have my copy and it says

Official Secrets Act:

A Person may be entrusted with information which is covered by the Official Secrets Act 1989 whilst engaged in business for the Royal Mail Group.

Under the Official Secrets Act 1989, it is a criminal offence for a Government Contractor (which means any person or body who is employed in the provision of goods or services for the Crown) including any employee of a Government contractor , to: -

. disclose unlawfully any information obtained as a result of such work without authorisation, and
. fail to safeguard or improperly retain or provide access to documents or articles containing information which it would be an offence under this Act to disclose.

The above apply even when work within Royal Mail Group ends.

There are also sections for the Data Protection Act, our responsibilities under Royal Mails Obligations, Safety of Postal Packets and Confidential Information. However, its all basically is the same thing. Namely that it is a criminal offence to delay, destroy, open or steal a letter, parcel, mail bag or other postal packet and that its also illegal to improperly obtain, hold, use or disclose any information, manual or electronic, about any identifiable living people.

[eric the viking]

All Royal Mail Group employees are required to sign a ‘Personal Declaration’ upon
commencing their employment. This covers the responsibilities of Royal Mail and its
employees in terms of safeguarding mail, how to deal with confidential information, our
internal Code of Business Standards and the Data Protection Act 1998. The ‘Personal
Declaration’ is not part of the Official Secrets Act, and the form makes no reference to this
Act.
This is from a freedom of information request in 2012.
when I joined rm for the second time I was told as I had already signed the OSA I did not need to again so it has obviously changed in the last seven years.

[stokes11eg]

well i signed the official secrets act when i started in august 2012

What makes you think you have signed the Official Secrets Act. That went out i would think with the old GPO (stand to be corrected though)

What you will have as to your contract of employment is a non disclosure clause, not the Official Secrets Act

Yes, I signed too, and still have my copy! We were originally classed as associate civil servants!

[arnold cheshire]

this has happened twice to me this week where Police have asked me where such and such lives and have you heard of anyone called?? .......one had the cheek yesterday to ask me to go through my letters/mail and look for such and such's surname.....now this street is in a bit of a crime spot, but can you imagine If I had said such and such lives at 13 a....and this chap caught wind of it....I would get lynched.
Where do we stand where Police are concerned?
Should they asking me in the first place as this poses a threat to my safety if I disclose where such and such lives!
I nearly told one of them to f off today as in the back of his Police car he had a scruffy looking chav who was helping them to try find where such and such lives...!!!

basically they should know better maybe the scruffy looking chav had been the victim of a crime and wanted to find where the accused lived