What you can do with your information

The law gives you a number of rights to control what personal information is used by us and how it is used by us. 

You can ask for access to the information we hold on you

We would normally expect to share what we record about you with you whenever we assess your needs or provide you with services. 

However, you also have the right to ask for all the information we have and the services you receive from us. When we receive a request from you in writing, we must give you access to everything we’ve recorded about you.

Request for Access to Personal Information – Subject Access Request Form

However, we can’t let you see any parts of your record which contain:  

• Confidential information about other people; or
• Data a professional thinks will cause serious harm to your or someone else’s physical or mental wellbeing; or
• If we think that giving you the information may stop us from preventing or detecting a crime

This applies to personal information that is in both paper and electronic records. 

You can ask to change information you think is inaccurate.

You should let us know if you disagree with something written on your file.

We may not always be able to change or remove that information but we’ll correct factual inaccuracies and may include your comments in the record to show that you disagree with it.

You can ask to delete information (right to be forgotten).

In some circumstances you can ask for your personal information to be deleted, for example: 

• Where your personal information is no longer needed for the reason why it was collected in the first place
• Where you have removed your consent for us to use your information (where there is no other legal reason us to use it)
• Where there is no legal reason for the use of your information
• Where deleting the information is a legal requirement

Where your personal information has been shared with others, we’ll do what we can to make sure those using your personal information comply with your request for erasure.

Please note that we can’t delete your information where:

• we’re required to have it by law
• it is used for freedom of expression 
• it is used for public health purposes
• it is for, scientific or historical research, or statistical purposes where it would make information unusable
• it is necessary for legal claims 

You can ask to limit what we use your personal data for.

You have the right to ask us to restrict what we use your personal information for where:

• you have identified inaccurate information, and have told us of it
• where we have no legal reason to use that information but you want us to restrict what we use it for rather than erase the information altogether.

When information is restricted it can’t be used other than to securely store the data and with your consent to handle legal claims and protect others, or where it’s for important public interests of the UK.

Where restriction of use has been granted, we’ll inform you before we carry on using your personal information.

You have the right to ask us to stop using your personal information for any council service. However, if this request is approved this may cause delays or prevent us delivering that service. 

Where possible we’ll seek to comply with your request, but we may need to hold or use information because we are required to by law.

You can ask to have your information moved to another provider (data portability)

You have the right to ask for your personal information to be given back to you or another service provider of your choice in a commonly used format. This is called data portability.

However this only applies if we’re using your personal information with consent (not if we’re required to by law) and if decisions were made by a computer and not a human being. 

It’s likely that data portability won’t apply to the services you receive from us, the Council.