Guidance

Privacy information notice (accessible version)

Updated 23 August 2024

Applies to England and Wales

Privacy Information Notice

Your personal information, supplied for the purposes of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) (Amendment, Surrender and Compensation) Order 2024 Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) (Amendment, Surrender and Compensation) Order 2024 Surrender and Compensation Scheme will be held and processed by the Home Office, 2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF. The Home Office is the ‘Controller’ of this information. This also includes when it is collected or processed by third parties on our behalf.

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

How we gather and use your personal information

The Home Office collects and processes personal information to fulfil 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.

Examples of ways in which we may gather your personal information include when:

• you will submit your compensation claim to the police for any weapon surrendered
• the police will send your compensation claim and any supporting documentation to the Home Office for the purposes of considering and processing your claim
• you can email our dedicated enquiries mailbox on the scheme for any enquiries
• we will seek to verify any of your information, documents or identity submitted as part of your compensation claim
• you will be able to contact the Home Office to raise a dispute over the amount of compensation that has been offered

We will process and hold your personal information for the consideration of your compensation claim.

Examples of how we may use your data:

• to verify your information or any supporting documentations
• to confirm the details of your claim
• to contact you in relation to consideration of your compensation
• to make a decision in relation to your compensation claim

The police as a public body will have access to your personal information as part of the arrangements for the surrender and compensation scheme. All claimants are required under the Order to submit their compensation claim forms at the same time they surrender their weapon to the police. The police will verify your identity and the information on your claim form, check the form has been completed properly and check that any supporting documentation has been enclosed with the form. The police will complete the relevant section on the claim form to confirm that they have checked the form, confirmed your identity and that you are the legal owner of the item and provide a unique identification number for your claim. Every claimant will receive a receipt for their claim with a unique identification number. The claim form will then be sent electronically from the police to the Home Office for consideration of your compensation claim.

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 at Personal Information that we collect and process.

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. More details of this policy can be found at Keeping Personal Information.

Requesting access to your personal data

You have the right to request access to the personal information the Home Office holds about you.

In certain circumstances you also have the right to:

• 1) rectification of any data that you determine is inaccurate or missing
• 2) erase your personal data
• 3) restrict the use of your personal data
• 4) object to its use

Details of how to make the request can be found at How to ask for your personal information.

Other rights

In certain circumstances you have the right to:

• 1. object to and restrict the use of your personal information, or to ask to have your data deleted, or corrected.

• 2. where you have explicitly consented to the use of your personal data and that is the lawful basis for processing, the right to withdraw your consent to the processing of your data and the right to data portability (where processing is carried out by automated means)

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 info.access@homeoffice.gov.uk

You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office about the way the Home Office is handling your personal information. Details on how you do this can be found at https://ico.org.uk/.