Personal data

On this page:

Why might we hold personal data about you?
Who can see information about you?
How can you see information about you?
Where should you send your request?
What are you entitled to see?
Requesting a review of our decision

Why might we hold personal data about you?

Generally, we will hold information about you if you have applied through your legal representative for legal aid.

To work out whether someone is eligible to receive legal aid, we need information about their case.

See Documents for our information charter which sets out:

the standards you can expect from us when we request or hold personal information about you
how you can get access to your personal data
what you can do if you think those standards are not being met.

Who can see information about you?

LSC employees working on your case
people acting for you (eg your solicitor or legal representative)
researchers or data processor we contract with to undertake work on your behalf
officials at the Ministry of Justice
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration
The Information Commissioner’s Office.

How can you see information about you?

If you would like to access the information that we hold about you, you must write us a letter containing:

your full name
your address
description of the information you require
a fee of £10 (cheques should be made payable to the Legal Services Commission)
any additional information which will help us to verify your identify such as your:
o date of birth
o case reference number
o national insurance number, etc.

Where should you send your request?

Your request should be addressed to the Data Protection Officer at the LSC office that dealt with your case.

Please mark clearly on your letter “Data subject access request – DPA98”.

Contact details for our regional offices can be found in our regional network pages.

We have 40 days to comply with your request. This counts from the date we receive your letter, payment and any other information we require.

What are you entitled to see?

You are entitled to copies of all the information we hold about you as an individual.

Information about you will be recorded on our Corporate Information System (CIS) as well as in manual files held in our regional offices.

For more information on what you can and cannot see, please refer to our information charter and Access to Information leaflet under Documents.

Requesting a review of our decision

If you are unhappy or dissatisfied with the way we have dealt with your request you have a right to request a review of our decision. Further details can be found in our information charter and Access to Information leaflet under Documents.

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Last updated: 01 July 2008