An election candidate has revealed he was reprimanded by the Island’s Information Commissioner for using the electoral register to contact a constituent ‘with a view to forming a personal relationship’.

Oliver John Lockwood, who is standing in the constituency of Onchan in September’s election, made the admission during a Q&A session in which he answered questions from members of the public on Facebook.

He tackled a range of topics, from Manx Care to wind farms.

But one person asked: ‘Why have you been reprimanded by the Information Commissioner?’

Mr Lockwood replied: ‘I used the personal details of a constituent shown on the electoral register to contact them with a view to forming a personal relationship.’

He went on to criticise data protection law, adding: ‘The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the most pervasive example of EU-derived legislation which remains in use in the island.’

The island’s Information Commissioner publishes details of organisations and individuals who have been subject to enforcement action or reprimands.

The latest document shows Mr Lockwood was investigated over three separate issues.

The summary of the infringements refers to the lawfulness, fairness and transparency of stored data, purpose limitation and accountability.

Mr Lockwood said: ‘In a common-law [data protection] system, including the island and the UK, proportionate enforcement needs to be assured by means of what is known as the purposive principle.

‘Under this principle, legislation is interpreted having regard to the underlying policy intent as well as the wording. It is not the policy intent of data protection legislation to prevent people forming personal relationships.

‘I will shortly be delivering flowers to another constituent. For data protection reasons, the flowers will not be delivered to their name and address shown on the electoral register but to my address, and I will carry them over by hand.’

Information Commissioner Dr Alexandra Delaney-Battacharya has already issued advice to candidates about handling the data available to them.