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Registration service privacy notice

1 Council Contact Details

1.1
West Northamptonshire Council
Number 1 Angel Square
Angel Street
Northampton
NN1 1ED

Web address: Births, deaths and marriages

2 Information that we hold

2.1 We currently collect and process the following information for administering the services and statutory obligations across Registration:

  • Informants Details: Name, Address, Telephone Number, Email address, Occupation (if relevant), Marital Status (if relevant)
  • Payment details (if applicable)
  • Details about the person who you are registering
    • the life event
    • name
    • date of birth
    • date of death
    • sex
    • marital status if applicable
    • home address
    • place of birth
    • place of death
    • occupation if applicable
    • Industry of employment
    • Nationality
  • Name of Registrar
  • Date of Registration
  • Cause of Death information
  • Medical Professional details and professional registration
  • Family appointed Funeral Directors contact information
  • Approved Premise contact information

3 How the information is obtained

3.1 Most of the personal information we process is provided to us by a Medical Professional/ GP Surgery/ Hospital Trust/ Medical Examiner Office or directly by you for one of the following reasons:

  • Respond to any service requests, feedback or complaints
  • To book an appointment/ record you are the informant as the person registering the life event (birth, death or notice of marriage)
  • To obtain a copy certificate
  • To undertake a celebratory service (Marriage, Civil Partnership, Renewal of Vows, Naming ceremony, Citizenship)
  • To contact you concerning any of the above

3.2 There are a number of reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information. Generally, we collect and use personal information where:

  • it is necessary to meet our legal obligations (see 4.1)
  • you have requested a service from us, such as booking appointments, and applications for copy certificates and citizenship ceremonies
  • you have entered into a contract with us to deliver a celebratory event such as a marriage or civil partnership
  • it is necessary to protect public health
  • it is required for the defence of legal cases
  • you, or your legal representative, have given us your consent
  • it is necessary for law enforcement reasons and to prevent, and detect fraud or crime
  • Sharing information with Central Government. Local Government, NHS ie Tell us Once Service, if you have opted to use this when registering a death, Education Board, Council Tax Department
  • Administrative purposes by official bodies eg ensuring their records are up to date in order to provide services to the public
  • we need to protect individuals from harm (in an emergency) or
  • it is necessary for archiving, research, or statistical/ research purposes. For these purposes your data would be used in a pseudonymised format (name and other identifying information replaced with a unique number)

4 What we do with the information

4.1 As a local authority the Council has a legal duty to carry out many of its functions or is obliged to carry out tasks which are in the interest of the general public. These tasks are carried out under the following primary legislation:

  • Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953
  • Registration of Births and Deaths Regulations 1987
  • Population statistics Act 1938
  • Marriage Act 1949
  • Regulation 4 Registration of Marriage Regulations 2015
  • Civil Partnership Act 2004
  • Regulation 3 Civil Partnership (Registration Provisions) Regulations 2005

Many of the services provided by our Registration Service require you to either enter into a contract with us or accept our Terms and Conditions to proceed. If you choose not to accept either, we will be unable to carry out our obligations.

4.2 We may share this information with law enforcement bodies such as Police, NHS, government authorities and other organisations for the prevention and detection of crime or fraud.

Other organisations we may share your data with are (if the law allows or requires it, or if we have your consent)

  • Report of Births to the Local Education Authority
  • Deaths to Public Health, Elections, Council Tax, Safeguarding (under 18 years old), Health Authority
  • Births are shared with the Library Services, with your consent

5 How long we keep your information for and how we securely dispose of it after use

5.1 We will only keep your information for the minimum period necessary. All Birth and Death Registers are retained indefinitely. Marriage Register prior to the 1st July 2021 are retained indefinitely. Marriage schedules after the 1st July are retained for 5 years following the date of the ceremony.

5.2 We will securely dispose of your information in line with the council's retention schedules.

5.3 We will securely dispose of your information in line with our retention policy.

6 How we store your information

6.1 Your information is securely stored on the service systems that can only be accessed by authorised officer. Birth Registers, Death Registers or a Marriage Schedule’s, are all in paper format and are retained at the Records Office.

7 Your data protection rights

7.1 The law gives you a number of rights to control what personal information is used by us and how we can use it. Please see section 15 of the council’s Privacy Policy for further information.

7.2 Please be aware that your rights may differ depending on the lawful basis for processing your personal data.

7.3 The right to withdraw consent (if applicable). You can ask that we no longer use your details for this [processing/groups of processing]. If you wish to exercise this right, please contact the Data Protection Officer detailed in section 8.3 below.

8 Who to contact

It should be noted that records relating to a deceased are not covered by Data Protection Legislation, which relates to only to living individuals.

8.1 For Registration, the Superintendent Registrar is a data controller for birth, marriage and death registrations and the local authority is a data controller for civil partnership registrations, they can be contacted via NCC Registration Service [email protected].

8.2 The Registrar General for England and Wales is a joint data controller for birth, marriage, death and civil partnerships registrations, and can be contacted at the General Register Office, Trafalgar Road, Southport, PR8 2HH

8.3 If you would like further information about how we use your personal information, or you wish to exercise one of your data rights or you wish to complain about the use of your personal information please contact the Data Protection Officer.

8.4 If you are still dissatisfied once you have contacted the Data Protection Officer, you have the right to complain to the ICO.

The ICO’s address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

9 Changes to this privacy notice

9.1 Privacy notices are live documents, which will be updated or revised in line with legislation.

Last updated 06 July 2023