Data protection

The Data Protection Act and our data protection policy.

Haringey Council holds personal information about residents and service users. All the information about you that we hold is protected under the Data Protection Act 2018.

The Data Protection Act 2018

The Data Protection Act is the legal framework that ensures your personal information is used fairly and lawfully.

By law, all organisations that hold information about you must follow the six principles set out in the Act. These principles make sure your rights are protected and state that all information must:

  • be processed fairly and lawfully and in a transparent manner
  • be obtained for specific, explicit and legitimate purposes
  • be adequate, relevant and not excessive
  • be accurate and where necessary kept up to date
  • not be kept any longer than necessary
  • be kept secure

Your data protection rights

  • You have the right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data including why we process personal data, how long we will keep it and who it will be shared with.
  • You have the right to access your personal data so that you can be aware of and verify the lawfulness of the processing.
  • You have the right not to be subject to automated decision-making and to be informed about such decision-making. Haringey does not use technology to make automated decisions about individuals.
  • You have the right to have inaccurate information corrected.
  • You have the right to object to processing, to erasure of information, to restrict processing and to data portability.
  • If you have given us your consent to use your personal information, you have the right to remove it at any time. If you want to remove your consent, please contact dataprotection@haringey.gov.uk and tell us which service you’re using so we can deal with your request.

To exercise any of these rights in relation to information that Haringey Council holds about you, please contact Haringey’s Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@haringey.gov.uk.

Make a complaint

If you have any concerns about the way that we have handled your personal data please email the Data Protection Team at dataprotection@haringey.gov.uk as we would like to have the opportunity to resolve your concerns.

If you’re still unhappy, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (an independent body set up to advise on information rights for the UK) about the way in which we process your personal data. Details on how you can do this can be found at the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

Accessing your information 

You are entitled to access the personal information that we hold about you so that you know what information we hold about you and can confirm that it is being held and processed lawfully.

There is no charge (except where requests are unreasonable or excessive). We must provide your information within one month (30 days). If the request is complex the timescale can be extended by a further two months to a total of 90 days.

Before we can deal with an access to personal information request (or Subject Access Request), we need to verify the identity of the person making the request. Haringey Council is a large organisation that holds information about individuals for many different reasons. We may require some information from you (such as which council service might hold information about you) to help us locate the information you are seeking.

Further information

Further information about the Data Protection Act can be found at the Information Commissioner’s website.

You can also find out more about these principles and your data protection rights by going to The Data Protection Act 2018 on GOV.UK.

For more detailed information about the personal information that we hold and how we use it, please see our Record of Processing Activities page.

You can also read our full policy here:

Haringey Data Protection Policy

Contact the data protection officer