Records - Your Rights - Warwickshire Web

Your rights over your personal information and how to use them

Data Protection Act 1998

You have legal rights
The Data Protection Act 1998 gives you rights about how organisations such as ours handle information about you.

Why we record your information
We provide many different services to many people. We need to hold information about you because:

it gives us information about our contact with you which also saves you having to repeat the same information over and over again;
it helps us to build up a picture of what social care the people of Warwickshire need; and
we have to give the Government information about how we provide services.

Your rights
You have the following rights under the Data Protection Act 1998.

To know if we are recording your information.
To know what information we record, where we got it from, why we record it, and who we might share it with. (By law, we need your permission to share your information with others unless we need to do so to protect someone at serious risk or serious crime is involved.)
To see your records. (There are more details about how to do this further on.)
To stop us doing things with your information if we are causing unnecessary damage or distress.
To claim compensation if we break the law.
To make us correct or remove any information that is incorrect or unnecessary, and to pass on correct details to anyone we gave the wrong information to.
To have your information kept confidential.

Seeing your records
If you want to see your records you also have the following rights.

To have a copy of your records with any technical terms explained.
To have an explanation of any automated decisions (for example, those where computers or calculators work it all out).
To appoint someone you trust to act for you as your agent.
To limit what information anyone acting for you can see.
To appeal to the courts or Information Commissioner if we refuse to give you copies of your personal information.

Information we can withhold
We do not have to give you information that:

is about other people who have not given their permission for you to have the information;
is likely to cause serious harm to someone; or
could obstruct attempts to prevent or detect crime.

Our open-access policy
Our policy is to share information with you. We will routinely give you copies of your assessments, care plans and reviews. We will share your records with you, and you can contribute to them.

This policy won't affect your right to formally ask for a copy of your records.

Asking to see your records
If you want to see your records you can either write to us or fill in a ‘Subject Access Request’ form which you can get from our offices. Call our Customer Service Centre on 01926 410410 to be put through to your local office.

If you’re currently receiving services from us, you can simply give your letter or form to the office you normally deal with.

If you last dealt with us a while ago and you’re not sure who to give your letter or form to, send it to:

Warwickshire County Council
PO Box 48
Shire Hall
Warwick
CV34 4RD.

At the moment we do not charge a fee for providing copies of social care records.

What happens next?
We’ll need to make sure you’re the person entitled to see your information, and to check all the details you want. We then have 40 days to provide your records and during this time we’ll keep you informed of our progress. If you prefer, we can provide a summary (instead of a full copy) of your records or arrange for someone to go through your records with you.

Where to get more information
We have more detailed information and other leaflets about your rights which you can ask us for.

The Information Commissioner is the independent person who helps to protect your rights about your personal information, and makes sure organisations like us handle it properly.

You can get a range of publications about your rights, as well as other advice and help, from the Information Commissioner at www.ico.gov.uk(external link)

Your Information.

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