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Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen coroner’s service

In order to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), where personal data relating to a data subject is collected, Lancashire County Council would like to provide you with the following details.

Identity and contact details of the data controller

The Senior Coroner for Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen is the data controller for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018 other regulations including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), which means they determine what your data is used for and why it is collected. The purpose of this privacy notice is to tell you about what information is collected about you when you use our service, how that information is used and who it may be shared with.

The contact details of the data controller are:

HM Senior Coroner for Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen
Coroner's Court
Faraday Court
Faraday Drive
Fulwood
Preston
PR2 9NB

Purposes for processing

Everything we do with information about living people – such as how we collect it and who we share it with – has to comply with the relevant Data Protection legislation. A key part of this is being open about how we use information and what rights you have in respect of information we hold about you.

The work of HM Coroner is undertaken as part of their judicial activities. This includes when a member of staff, police officer or other appointed investigator, is carrying out activities in pursuit of the coroner’s statutory powers and responsibilities. The Data Protection Act 2018 confirms that this work, and the data required to complete this work, is necessary of the administration of justice which is a task carried out in the public interest.

  • The Senior Coroner for Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen is supported by two Area Coroners and a number of Assistant Coroners.

Category of personal data being processed

Please delete as appropriate – the information governance team can help with this if required…

  1. Personal data (information relating to a living, identifiable individual)
  2. Special category personal data (racial, ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person's sex life or sexual orientation)

Legal basis for processing personal data

The legal basis for processing your personal data, in accordance with the UK GDPR is:

(c) Legal Obligation: the processing is necessary for you to comply with the law. You must reference the applicable legislation if you wish to rely on this basis for processing.

(e) Public Task: the processing is necessary for you to perform a task in the public interest or for your official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law. You must reference the applicable task/function and its' basis in law if you wish to rely on this basis for processing.

The personal data processed by the Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen Coroner's Service is done so by virtue of the following legislation:

  • Coroners Act 1988
  • Coroners and Justice Act 2009

Legal basis for processing special categories of personal data

The legal basis for processing your special categories of personal data, in accordance with of the UK GDPR is:

(b) Processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or of the data subject in the field of employment and social security and social protection law

(j) Processing is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes.

Recipients of the data

As inquests are publically accessible, this data will be shared with anyone attending the proceedings, including the press.

The UK GDPR includes exemptions from the regulations of GDPR for the purpose of the protection of judicial independence and proceedings.

During the course of undertaking their statutory duties, the Senior Coroner and Area Coroners may share data with the following main organisations:

  • Lancashire County Council
  • Blackburn with Darwen Council
  • Chief Coroner
  • Lancashire Constabulary
  • Pathologists
  • Funeral directors in Lancashire and surrounding areas
  • Local Coroners – specifically those where cases are often transferred to/from
  • NHS Hospital Trusts used by the Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen Coroner Area
  • Clinical Commissioning Groups covering Lancashire
  • Ministry of Justice
  • Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service
  • British Transport Police
  • North West Ambulance Service
  • Crown Prosecution Service
  • Health and Safety Executive
  • GPs
  • Accident investigation branches
  • Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen Register Office staff
  • Cemeteries and Crematoria in the Lancashire and surrounding area
  • Families affected, appointed executor representative of the person whose personal data we are processing
  • Financial organisations such as insurance companies and pension schemes
  • We provide information to Lancashire Public Health for statistical purposes

Other organisations which from time to time are involved with an investigation and who are required to provide evidence or assistance to the Coroner

Information we share

We hold personal data on two different categories of identifiable natural person:

  • In relation to a deceased person. Living people can often be identified from the data which is held on a deceased person, for example the deceased’s Next of Kin, or their doctor or solicitor. It can also be possible to piece together information about living persons from data we hold on a deceased person. It should be noted that the personal information and records directly relating to the deceased is not covered by the Data Protection Act which relates only to living individuals.
  • We also hold information on many other people that we are in contact with in the course of the Coroners work and investigations. Including staff, police officers, NHS staff, solicitors, ambulance staff, pathologists, witnesses and expert witnesses, specialists, jurors, other local authority officers, members of the public and Interested persons, etc.

In both categories personal information including contact details that HM Coroner and his staff identify and require during the investigations are held. Some of this information may include special personal data. All of this information is held securely.

Where relevant, we will collect the following information:

  • Name
  • Date of Birth
  • Medical history from GP and hospitals
  • Cause of death
  • Family details
  • Lifestyle and social circumstances
  • Addictions
  • Financial details
  • Employment and education details
  • Occupation and place of work
  • Offences and alleged offences contained in police report
  • Physical or mental health details
  • Racial or ethnic origin
  • Religious or other beliefs
  • Criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences
  • Results of DNA reports and finger reports results
  • Juror information – name, address, bank account details to pay expenses
  • Witnesses – name, address, bank account details to pay expenses

Any transfers to another country

  • No

Retention periods

Lancashire County Council will only store your information for as long as is legally required or in situations where there is no legal retention period they will follow established best practice.

File type Description Security Retention period
email emails held in Outlook that haven't been exported or moved elsewhere. encrypted used when emailing personal data to partners. Retained in accordance with appropriate internal retention guidelines
Coroners enquiries Coroner's case files that record the processes and actions of inquiring into deaths which do not proceed to an inquest Retained on a secure password protected electronic system. Destroy 15 years after last action - action date applied as 1 January after close of file. Exception: cases relating to miners which by direction of Home office Sep 2002 are to be retained until further notice
Coroners Inquests Coroner's case files that record the processes and actions of inquiring into deaths which proceed to an inquest Retained on a secure password protected electronic system. Sample 15 years after last action - action date applied as 1 January following date of inquest. Permanent preservation of files pre-dating 1875, retain whole series for intercensal years and those which set a precedent in law or practice, or relate to an individual, accident or crime subject of prolonged or repeated interest from the media, (e.g murder, manslaughter, open verdicts, industrial disease, war service, suicide). Transfer to Lancashire Archives.

Your rights

You have certain rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), these are the right:

  • to be informed via Privacy Notices such as this.
  • to withdraw your consent. If we are relying on your consent to process your data then you can remove this at any point.
  • of access to any personal information the council holds about yourself. To request a copy of this information you must make a subject access request in writing. You are entitled to receive a copy of your personal data within 1 calendar month of our receipt of your subject access request. If your request is complex then we can extend this period by a further two months, if we need to do this we will contact you. You can request a subject access request, either via a letter or via an email to Information Governance Team, address below.
  • of rectification, we must correct inaccurate or incomplete data within one month.
  • to erasure. You have the right to have your personal data erased and to prevent processing unless we have a legal obligation to process your personal information.
  • to restrict processing. You have the right to suppress processing. We can retain just enough information about you to ensure that the restriction is respected in future.
  • to data portability. We can provide you with your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine readable form when asked.
  • to object. You can object to your personal data being used for profiling, direct marketing or research purposes.
  • in relation to automated decision making and profiling, to reduce the risk that a potentially damaging decision is taken without human intervention.

If you want to exercise any of these rights then you can do so by contacting:

Information Governance Team
Lancashire County Council
PO Box 78
County Hall
Preston
PR1 8XJ

Email: dpo@lancashire.gov.uk

To ensure that we can deal with your request as efficiently as possible you will need to include your current name and address, proof of identity (a copy of your driving licence, passport or two different utility bills that display your name and address), as much detail as possible regarding your request so that we can identify any information we may hold about you, this may include your previous name and address, date of birth and what council service you were involved with.

Further information

If you would like more information about this specific service then please contact coroners@lancashire.gov.uk.

For more information about how we use personal information see Lancashire County Council's full privacy notice.

If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, you can contact the Information Governance team who will investigate the matter.

Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78 County Hall, Fishergate, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 8XJ or email: dataprotection@lancashire.gov.uk

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data not in accordance with the law you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).