Privacy notice

Personal data of the living

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 law as set out 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 and the Data Protection Act.  The court is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

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 organisations: the Metropolitan Police Service or the London Borough of Camden.

Coroners will share personal information with law enforcement agencies 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 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 HM Senior Coroner.  If you are making this enquiry, it would be helpful to indicate in what circumstance and when you believe that 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 HM Senior Coroner.  If you are dissatisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office.

Personal data of the deceased

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 the Freedom of Information Act. 

Coroners are governed by the legislation on disclosure laid down in the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, The Coroners Regulations 2013 and The Coroners Rules 2013.  Interested persons (which includes close family of the deceased) can seek from the coroner disclosure of documents that will be relied upon at inquest.  Disclosure will generally be made to one family member who acts as a single point of contact for the extended family.

Coroners disclose information in open court for the purpose of an inquest, and out of court to fulfil the court's reporting functions to the Chief Coroner of England & Wales and to the Ministry of Justice.  Aside from these functions, coroners respect the common law duty of confidentiality, which usually involves the court seeking the consent of the next of kin before agreeing to disclose information.

Enquiries about data held in relation to a current investigation should be made to the relevant coroner’s officer, and for matters that have already been concluded to the senior coroner’s PA.  Complaints about the judicial processing of data are likely to be heard by a Judicial Data Protection Panel.