Pictured above: Ruth Nelson, from The Association of Christian Counsellors, with Raj Somal, from Band Hatton

A leading Midlands law firm has advised counsellors from across the country about the importance of protecting personal and sensitive information.

The Association of Christian Counsellors (ACC), an umbrella organisation which aims to facilitate the provision of quality Christian counselling and pastoral care across the UK, invited Band Hatton to speak about the Data Protection Act during its Affiliates Day.

Raj Somal, from Band Hatton based in Station Square, Coventry, attended the event at the Queens Road Baptist Church, Grosvenor Road, to advise representatives of 150 ACC-affiliated organisations who had travelled from across the country to learn about the requirements of the Act and the actions they should be taking.

The presentation covered a wide range of aspects of the Data Protection Act including terminology, good practice and rights of the data subject before being followed by a question and answer session.

Ruth Nelson, director of operations at ACC, said: "Across the country we have around 2,000 members and today we had representatives of some of our 150 affiliated organisations.

"Each of our counsellors has to protect their clients' confidentiality as well as keep information shared with other organisations safe.

"Events like this can help to ensure we maintain a high quality of service across the country and our members are kept up to date.

"Today has been very useful in terms of finding out what people need to look at and being able to hear the answers to some of the questions which came up."

The organisation has been established since 1992 and works closely with counselling and training agencies, individual counsellors, church organisations  and professional bodies.

Raj Somal, from Band Hatton, said: "The importance of the Data Protection Act is not to be underestimated - there have been several high profile cases where people have fallen foul of the law in recent years.

"It is particularly important in a field such as counselling when people are handling highly sensitive and personal information and I was delighted to have been invited to share my knowledge with the ACC.

"The Data Protection Act applies to anyone who handles information which could be used to identify a person and that includes things such as names, addresses and telephone numbers.

"Therefore I would urge any individual or organisation which handles this type of information to seek expert advice if they are unsure of the actions or precautions they should be taking."