Your Rights Under Data Protection Legislation

This information summarises some of the rights you have under data protection legislation. Its main purpose is to tell you what information the Northwest Development Agency needs from you if you wish to exercise those rights. The information is for general guidance only and is not a substitute for independent legal advice.

The rights covered below are:

1. Your right to see a copy of your information
2. Your right to correct any errors in your information
3. Your right to be removed from our mailing lists

We also tell you how to find out more.

1. Your right to see a copy of your information

Under the Data Protection Act and associated legislation you will usually have the right to be told what information we hold about you and to receive a copy of that information. You also have other related rights, such as to be told the source of the information (if we know it), the purposes for which that information is held, to whom they are or may be disclosed and the logic involved in any automated decision making (if that is the sole basis on which we make decisions about you that are likely to affect you significantly).

You can exercise this right by making what is called a “Subject Access Request”.

1.1. How to exercise your rights

Please complete our Subject Access Request form. The form is available from our Data Protection Officer at the address below, and on our website (downloadable below). Alternatively, you can send us your written request together with:

• your full name and address
• a cheque for £10 made payable to NWDA
• proof of your identity
• sufficient details about the information you want to enable us to locate it.

Subject Access Form

Your request should be addressed to:

The Data Protection Officer
Subject Access Requests
NWDA
Renaissance House
PO Box 37
Centre Park
Warrington
WA1 1XB

1.2. What you can expect from us

We will let you know if we require further information to satisfy ourselves as to your identity or to locate the information you seek.

We will respond to your request promptly and in any event within 40 days of receiving your written request and the information we require to satisfy ourselves of your identity and to locate the information you seek.

It would be helpful to us if you could check the information we provide to see if the details we hold about you are accurate and up to date. See Your right to correct any errors in your information below which explains how to ask us to amend the information about you.

1.3. Circumstances when we may not give you the information you ask for

You may not have the right to see information about you. The main reasons are that:

• You are not able to give us the information we reasonably require to satisfy ourselves as to your identity or to locate the information which you seek
• We cannot comply with your request without disclosing information relating to another individual who can be identified from that information. This will only apply where the other individual does not consent to us disclosing the information and it is not reasonable in the circumstances for us to disclose the information to you without that individual’s consent
• The cost to us would be prohibitive. This will happen where the information we hold about you is “unstructured”. For example, it may be that we hold some personal information in paper files, but it is not possible for us to find out whether and what information relates to you within those files without leafing through them. As a general rule, we will not respond to your request if it will cost us more than £450 to do so, i.e. if it will take us more than 2.5 to 3 days at £25 per hour

2. Your right to correct any errors in your information

You have a right to apply to the court to have any inaccurate personal data we hold about you rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed. This includes any opinions based on inaccurate data.

It is important to us that the information we hold is of high quality. So if you realise that we are holding inaccurate information about you, either because you have made a subject access request or for any other reason, please let us know.

Requests to amend information we hold about you need to be made in writing and addressed to the Data Protection Officer at the address above. We aim to make the necessary amendments as soon as we can and in any event within 10 working days.

3. Your right to be removed from our mailing lists

You have a right to write to ask us to stop or not to start using your details for the purpose of direct marketing. You may do this at any time.

You should put your request in writing, addressed to the Data Protection Officer at the address above. We aim to act on your request as soon as we can and in any event within 10 working days.

Further details of the sort of information we may send you can be found in our Privacy Code.

4. How to find out more

For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data-sharing issues, you can contact the Information Commissioner at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF, tel: 01625 545745 fax: 01625 524510 e-mail: mail@dataprotection.gov.uk website: www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk.