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The Data Protection Act

The Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998 is designed to protect against the misuse of personal data. Its principles are to ensure that personal information is:

Fairly and lawfully processed;
Obtained and processed for one or more specific purposes;
Adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to those purpose(s);
Accurate, and where necessary kept up to date;
Not kept longer than necessary;
Processed in accordance with the data subject's rights;
Secure against unauthorised and unlawful processing and accidental loss or destruction;
Not transferred to countries without adequate protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data.

The Act makes provision for individuals to access personal data held about them in any format and to challenge the validity and use of that personal information. Where personal information relating to another individual we may need to seek their consent to release it. If they do not agree or we cannot contact them and it is unreasonable to release the information without their consent we may have to withhold the information. There are also additional reasons why information may be withheld which can be found on the Information Commissioner website under the heading Your Information Rights.

The Act requires that we notify the Information Commissioner about what personal information we hold, what purposes we use it for, who we get it from and who we give it to. This notification can help you find out what information we hold about you and therefore what you can ask for. Details can be found on the Information Commissioner website.

You can request your personal information by making a Data Subject Access Request by writing into us or completing the form which you can download from our download section to the right.

We will normally respond to your request in full within 40 days after we receive your fee, which is currently £10.

If you are disappointed with the response to your enquiry you can ask us to review our decision and actions but where we are unable to resolve any differences you can contact the Information Commissioner who is the independent regulator of the Act.