Data Protection Act, sensitive personal data

Act 11 of 2011, ss. 35-38 (sensitive personal data)

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What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.

In force since 31 January 2023.

A sensitive categories rule binding public and private bodies.

As of 19 September 2026.

What it requires

Do not process a special category of sensitive personal data (racial or ethnic origin, political opinion, religious belief, physical or mental health, sexual orientation, or criminal or financial record) unless a listed ground applies, the person has given explicit consent, or the person already published it themselves.
Where you rely on the vital-interests or right-or-obligation grounds to process sensitive personal data without consent, put appropriate safeguards in place first.
Process sensitive personal data for health or medical purposes only through a health practitioner or someone bound by professional confidentiality, and only for preventive medicine, public health, medical diagnosis, medical research, or managing health and hospital care services.
Before processing or disclosing sensitive personal data for research or statistical purposes, confirm identifiable data is genuinely necessary, commit not to use it to recruit research participants, get the responsible officer's approval of security and destruction conditions, and get the recipient's signed agreement to comply with them.

What it reaches

Obligation class

Prohibition, Consent

What this law does

Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.

Section 35 bars processing sensitive personal data (racial or ethnic origin, political opinion, religious belief, physical or mental health, sexual orientation, or criminal or financial record) except under the grounds section 34(2) and sections 36 to 38 provide, in regulations the Minister prescribes having regard to the public interest, or where the data subject has given explicit consent or has already published the data.

Section 36 lets a data controller process sensitive personal data with appropriate safeguards where necessary to exercise or perform a right or obligation the law imposes on it, to protect the vital interests of the data subject or another person where consent cannot be obtained, or to protect another person's vital interests where the data subject's consent has been unreasonably withheld.

Section 37 lets a health practitioner or another person under a professional confidentiality obligation process sensitive personal data for preventive medicine and the protection of public health, medical diagnosis, medical research, or management of health and hospital care services. The 2015 Act put medical research on that list, in place of health care or treatment.

The same Act added a subsection giving way to another enactment that specifically governs the processing of sensitive personal data for health purposes where the two are inconsistent.

Section 38 lets a data controller process or disclose sensitive personal data for research, including statistical research, only where the research purpose cannot reasonably be accomplished without individually identifiable data, the data will not be used to contact a person to participate in research, any record linkage is not harmful to the data subject, and the responsible officer has approved conditions on security and destruction of identifiers, with the recipient signing an agreement to comply with those conditions.

Section 64 additionally exempts information a data controller is obliged under another enactment to make public from sections 34, 35, 40, 41, 42, 43 and 44 and from Part 5 in respect of blocking personal data.

When LexLint raises it

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Read the law

Data Protection Act No. 11 of 2011, Saint Lucia, full text of the Act as enacted

Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.

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