Registration service privacy notice

Everything we do with information about living people – such as how we collect it and who we share it with – has to comply with the Data Protection legislation. A key part of this is being open about how we use information and what rights you have in respect of information we hold about you.

If anything in this notice is not clear, or if you have further queries, please get in contact with the Data Protection Officer using the details at the end.

What information do we hold

We collect personal details as part of providing our range of services, such as booking appointments and applications for certificates. All information is held securely and is used to provide the service requested.

Why do we have it and what do we use it for

We provide statutory services in respect of birth registration, death registration, marriage notice and registration, civil partnership notice and registration, citizenship ceremonies. We do this under responsibilities set out in various laws that either form part of our public task or place us under a legal obligation to collect information. The primary legislation we act under are:

• Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953
• Registration of Births and Deaths Regulations 1987
• Population Statistics Act 1938
• Marriage Act 1949
• Regulation 4 Registration of Marriage Regulations 2015
• Civil Partnership Act 2004
• Regulation 3 Civil Partnership (Registration Provisions) Regulations 2005

We also provide non–statutory services such as citizenship checking and celebratory services.

Contact information will be used as part of the services we deliver, including seeking customer feedback and providing related information about the services.

Whenever we use information, we always limit this to only the details that are needed and we ensure that it is used safely and securely. We require anyone we share information with, or who uses it on our behalf, to do so too. All staff receive training on data protection and information security.

Who we share information with and why

All key life events are recorded into a system provided by the General Register Office (GRO) for England and Wales, so that a central record of all registrations can be maintained. Where legislation required a paper record is also created.

Confidential information for statistical purposes which you are required by law to give to us, and other information provided voluntarily, will be passed to the UK Statistics Authority for the preparation and supply of statistics.

Both we and the GRO may also make information available to Central government, Local government, NHS and law enforcement organisations where appropriate, for the following purposes:

• Providing the Tell Us Once service, if you have opted to use this when registering a death.
• Statistical or research purposes
• Administrative purposes by official bodies e.g. ensuring their records are up-to-date
• Fraud prevention or detection, immigration and passport purposes.

It should be noted that records of the deceased are not covered by Data Protection legislation, which relates only to living individuals, although the common law duty of confidentiality still applies. We are also required by law to share details of death registrations with relevant bodies to ensure their records are accurate or for monitoring purposes. This ranges from public pension payers to profession-specific organisations such as the General Medical Council, General Dental Council and General Optical Council.

Information included on register entries

A copy of a register entry will be provided to any applicant, provided that they supply enough information to identify the entry concerned and pay the appropriate fee. The copy from a local Registration Service may only be issued in the form of a paper certified copy (a “certificate”). An application for a certificate may be made to either ourselves or to the GRO.

The GRO makes indexes, for the central record of registrations, publicly available in order to help members of the public identify the registration they might need.

Cambridgeshire Registration Service also makes a local index available on the  Camdex website.. The information made available online is restricted to the basic details that are available in the print index and that can help members of the public identify the registration they might need. Certificates can also be applied for, and paid for, on-line for events held in Cambridgeshire

How long we keep hold of information for

We only keep information for as long as it is needed. This will be based on either a legal requirement (where a law says we have to keep information for a specific period of time) or accepted business practice. This is set out in our retention schedule.

What rights you have

You have various rights around the data we hold about you.

• Right of access (to receive a copy of your personal data)
• Right to rectification (to request data is corrected if inaccurate)
• Right to erasure (to request that data is deleted)
• Right to restrict processing (to request we don’t use your data in a certain way)
• Right to data portability (in some cases, you can ask to receive a copy of your data in a commonly-used electronic format so that it can be given to someone else)
• Right to object (generally to make a complaint about any aspect of our use of your data)
• Right to have explained if there will be any automated decision-making, including profiling, based on your data and for the logic behind this to be explained to you.

Any such request can be submitted to the Cambridgeshire County Council Data Protection Officer. Whether we can agree to your request will depend on the specific circumstances and if we cannot then we will explain the reasons why.

If you are unhappy with any aspect of how your information has been collected and/or used, you can make a complaint to the Data Protection Officer.

You can also report your concerns to the Information Commissioner’s Office.