Coroner’s Court privacy notice and other information

Coroner’s Court privacy notice and other information

When undertaking inquiries, the court will collect, use and store personal information. This processing is necessary to enable the court to fulfil the judicial functions that have been vested in coroners by law. Coroners apply the rules in the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.

The court is responsible for certain personal information as a controller of data, when it is regulated under the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 which applies across the European Union (including in the UK), and the Data Protection Act 2018 which applies in the UK. 

The court collects and uses very little personal data of living persons that is not directly related to its judicial functions. It is principally data related to staff, most if not all of which is the responsibility of the data controller of the employing organizations: the Metropolitan Police Service or the London Borough of Camden.

Coroners will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by law or where it is necessary to carry out their judicial functions. Data will not be shared routinely otherwise.

The court will retain data for as long as is necessary and subject to the provisions of relevant legislation. Coroners’ files are kept for a minimum of 15 years, and occasionally longer.

You are able to exercise a number of rights in relation to your data, free of charge, including the right to:

  • access your personal information
  • require the court to correct any mistakes in your information that it holds
  • in certain situations, require the erasure of your personal information
  • receive personal information that you have provided
  • in certain situations, object to continued processing of your personal information
  • in certain circumstances, restrict the processing of your personal information

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please send a letter for the attention of the Senior Coroner at St Pancras Coroner’s Office. If you are making this enquiry, it would be helpful to indicate in what circumstance and when you believe your personal data was shared with the court.

If you have a complaint about the use of your information by the court, please send a letter for the attention of the Senior Coroner at St Pancras Coroner’s Office. Alternatively, you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office.

Other information processed by the Court

Coroners collect, use and are responsible for information about people who have died. This information is not subject to the General Data Protection Regulation or the Data Protection Act or Freedom of Information claims. 

However, coroners must respect the common law duty of confidentiality. This usually requires the court to seek the consent of the next of kin before agreeing to disclose this information, unless it is given in open court for the purpose of an inquest, or to fulfil the court’s reporting functions to the Chief Coroner of England and Wales or to the Ministry of Justice. 

Coroners are governed by rules on the disclosure of information in relation to investigations and inquests under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. Interested persons (which includes close family of the deceased) can challenge decisions of the coroner to disclose data in connection with an investigation.

Enquiries about data held in relation to a current investigation should be made to the respective coroner’s officer and for old cases to the senior coroner’s PA. Complaints about the judicial processing of data are likely to be heard by a Judicial Data Protection Panel.