Goaround737 - I'm not sure your first paragraph there was directed towards me, not for one second did I not believe that your friend had to re-sit all the exams. In my time there in PLD, I probably heard of it happening to a handful of people, one of which was a good friend of mine. (He didn't fail them more times then allowed, he was a bit lazy, and had other commitments, so they expired).
Regarding your second paragraph, I don't think I need to have been an ex PLD employee to come up with that answer. If a company requests a copy of your results and you cannot provide them, then perhaps you won't get hired. If you remember back to when you did your exams, the results for each sitting were sent out a couple of weeks after taking the exams. When you passed the last exam(s) you had the date and grade of those particular exams on that certificate, and the ones previously passed, simply had 'passed' with the month/year passed in the box. No where did it say on this final certificate if you'd failed any. However, the company you are interviewing for, could easily ask the interviewee for a copy of all the exam certificates from each sitting, and this is where they'd see the grades you'd got on earlier exams, and whether you passed them all first time. (I hope that was clear).
I'd say 'no' regarding getting the results for a particular pilot from the CAA on behalf of a pilot not willing/able to supply them, due to the data protection act as you suggest.