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About this guide

Many different organisations keep records that contain personal information about you. You have a right to:

• see many of these records
• have the information corrected if it is wrong
• compensation if you are financially or physically damaged by inaccurate information.

Your rights to see personal information about yourself, held on computer records and paper records, are set out in the Data Protection Act 1998 and associated legislation. These rights are slightly different in relation to school, health, housing and social work records, whether they are held on computer or paper. This guide explains the differences in these rights.

Under the Access to Medical Reports Act 1988, you also have rights to see medical reports about you written for an insurance company or an employer. These are described in the section on medical reports.

This guide does not cover the following:

• Access to personal information about someone else, which is covered by the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. Guidance on the Freedom of Information Act is available in Freedom of Information Factsheet and on the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act in Your right to know. Copies of these are available from the Information Commissioner and Scottish Information Commissioner respectively — see the ’Advice and assistance’ page for contact details.

• Access to the health records of someone who has died, which is covered by the Access to Health Records Act 1990 and, in Northern Ireland, the Access to Health Records (Northern Ireland) Order 1993. This right of access is for the personal representative of the deceased person and not simply a surviving family member. For advice on this, contact the Information Commissioner — see the ’Advice and assistance’ page for contact details.

• Information about you held by credit reference agencies, which is covered by the Consumer Credit Act 1974, and credit scoring used by banks and other lenders. For guidance on your rights of access to information about you held by credit reference agencies, see Credit explained. You can obtain a copy of this from the Information Commissioner — see the ’Advice and assistance’ page for contact details.

• How to reduce unwanted sales calls, junk mail or email marketing, which is covered by the Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulations, or how to safeguard your personal information and prevent identify theft. You will find guidance on these topics in the Personal information toolkit. You can obtain a copy of this from the Information Commissioner — see the ’Advice and assistance’ page for contact details.

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