Guidance

Privacy notice for Home Office archiving

Published 16 October 2024

Home Office: Archiving for Permanent Preservation

Privacy Notice

Your personal information may be archived by the Home Office where it is lawful to do so. The Home Office, is the ‘Controller’ of this information. The archived information may include personal data received for the purpose of archiving from another data controller, but for the archival purpose the Home Office will be the sole controller while it is in Home Office possession.

The Home Office may be contacted at:

Information Rights Team,
2 Marsham Street,
London,
SW1P 4DF

Details of the Department’s Data Protection Officer can be found in the Personal Information Charter.

The Home Office collects and processes personal information as part of delivering its legal and official statutory functions. We will only use personal information when the law allows us to and where it is necessary and proportionate to do so.

The Home Office is only allowed to process your data where there is a lawful basis for doing so. We have systems and policies in place to limit access to your information and prevent unauthorised disclosure. Staff who access personal information must have appropriate security clearance and a business need for accessing the information, and their activity is subject to audit and review.

The Home Office has a statutory duty under the Public Records Act 1958 to select records of historic value for permanent preservation at The National Archives (TNA). Such records may include personal data, including special category data.

The Home Office processes personal data for archiving under Article 6(c) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – legal obligation; and processes special category data under Article 9(j) – archiving, research, and statistics (with a basis in law).

Records may also contain reference to criminal offence data: for archiving processes, the Home Office processes criminal offence data under the control of official authority and will consider disclosure of such information in line with Data Protection law.

Records may be used by subject matter experts within the Home Office or shared with other government departments in order to assess whether any information remains confidential or release should be deferred for other reasons. Home Office information management staff will review records to assess whether personal data should be redacted in line with Data Protection law, prior to release of records to TNA.

Storing your information

Your personal information will be held for as long as necessary for the purpose for which it is being processed and in line with departmental retention policy – further details can be found at Home Office retention and disposal standards - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Records are usually considered for archiving when they approach 20 years of age; however, this may take place earlier where there is a requirement (including public interest) to do so. Personal data held in records that are selected for permanent preservation are held at TNA in perpetuity but will not usually be disclosed during the lifetime of an identifiable individual. Personal data that is not selected for permanent preservation will be destroyed.

A small proportion of records may have a security classification that makes them unsuitable for transfer to TNA. In these cases, information will remain with the Home Office until the security classification is sufficiently downgraded for the transfer to take place to the permanent archive.

More information about the ways in which the Home Office may use your personal information, including the purposes for which we use it, the legal basis, and who your information may be shared with can be found in the Personal Information Charter.

Sources and categories of information

Records that are considered for archiving mainly come from the operational and policy-making areas of the department. These include immigration and asylum, passport and identity functions, policing and crime prevention, counter-terrorism, safeguarding of vulnerable individuals, firearms licensing and support functions such as finance, buildings management and personnel management. The Home Office also has to consider archiving data that may include personal data relating to closed reviews, arm’s length bodies and independent inquiries.

Categories of personal data may include (this list is not exhaustive):

• Immigration and residential status and applications for changes to status

• Names and contact details for victims of crime, perpetrators of crime, witnesses and police officers and staff

• Names and contact details of correspondents with the Home Office

• Names, contact details, employment records of officials working for the Home Office, other government departments or crown bodies

• Names of staff working for or on behalf of non-governmental bodies

• Details of gender identity to which the Data Protection Act 2018 does not directly apply

• Criminal convictions and allegations of criminal activity

• Names and contact details of holders of firearms licences, controlled drugs licences, and animal in scientific procedures licences.

Categories of special category data may include the following for identifiable individuals:

• Racial or ethnic origins

• Political opinions

• Health information

• Religious or philosophical beliefs

• Trade union membership

• Details of sex life or sexual orientation

• Genetic data

• Biometrics

Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

• your right of access - you have the right to ask us for copies of your personal data

• your right to rectification - you have the right to ask us to rectify personal data you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete

• your right to erasure - you have the right to ask us to erase your personal data in certain circumstances

• your right to restriction of processing - you have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances

• your right to object to processing - you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

More information about your rights can be found on the ICO Website.

If you would like to exercise any of the above rights, please contact:

info.access@homeoffice.gov.uk

Questions or concerns about personal data

If you have any questions or concerns about the collection, use or disclosure of your personal information please contact the Home Office via dpo@homeoffice.gov.uk

Reporting a concern

When we process your information we will comply with the law, including data protection legislation. If you feel that your data is being processed in breach of data protection law or other legislation, you have the right to report your concern to our Data Protection Officer using the contact details provided above, or contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at:

Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire,
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Email address: icocasework@ico.org.uk

You can also visit the Information Commissioner’s Office website.