Data Protection Act 1998

The Data Protection Act 1998 gives you the right to access information held about you by organisations.  The Act governs how organisations can use the personal information that they hold – including how they acquire, store, share and dispose of it.

How to find out what information the council holds about you.

This is called a “subject access request” and you, the “data subject” would write to Data Protection, Cheshire West and Chester, County Hall, Chester, CH1 1SF.

Let us know where you think we hold information e.g. what services you use; council tax, libraries, social care etc.  Please note that schools will hold pupil records, not the council.

Before we can supply information to you there are some steps we have to take to check your identity: as you can imagine we must be careful to only disclose personal information to the person who is entitled to receive it.

There is a £10 fee, but we have the right to waive this fee in certain circumstances.

We will reply within 40 calendar days after verifying your identification and receiving your request.

The Act is administered and enforced by the Information Commissioner – an independent authority who is appointed by the Queen and reports directly to parliament.

Read the full Act at Data Protection Act

The Act requires that all personal data must be processed in accordance with 8 principles: they are that all data

• shall be processed fairly and lawfully and, in particular, shall not be processed unless specific conditions are met;
• shall be obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purposes, and shall not be further processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose or those purposes.
• shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which they are processed;
• shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date;
• shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes;
• shall be processed in accordance with the rights of data subjects under the Act;
• appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data;
• personal information shall not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data.

More information is available from the Information Commissioners Office.