Data protection complaints and incident reporting

Any data protection complaints about how the council has processed your personal data, will be handled in accordance with the council’s complaints policy. You can find out how to submit a complaint online.

There is no further right of appeal to the council following this investigation. You are entitled to complain to the Information Commissioner if you consider that there has been an infringement of data protection legislation. Further details can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website.

Reporting a personal data breach

You can also report any instances where you think your data has been breached.

Article 4 (12) of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) defines a personal data security breach as:

“A breach of security leading to the unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed.”

A personal data security breach can come in many forms, but the most common are:

  • loss or theft of paper or other hard copy data
  • data posted or emailed to the incorrect recipient or address
  • loss or theft of equipment on which data is stored that is not appropriately encrypted
  • inappropriate sharing of data
  • hacking, malware, data corruption
  • information obtained by deception
  • equipment failure, fire or flood
  • unauthorised access of data
  • non-secure disposal of data
In the event of a personal data breach and where there is an immediate threat to life or physical harm to individuals, it is imperative to contact the Police immediately by dialling 999.

If there is a related safeguarding matter, it may be appropriate to contact the relevant Emergency Duty Team.

In all instances where you believe a data breach has occurred, you may contact us on the compliments and complaints page.

Out of hours incident and data breach reporting

If the matter you want to report involves an immediate threat to life, physical harm to individuals or a safeguarding concern, you are still advised to contact the Police or Emergency Duty Teams. 

Find details about emergency out of hours contacts.

If you need to report an emergency data breach, or a potential data breach during out of hours, call 0113 376 0499.