Leeds Register Office - Privacy Notice

The data controller for the information we collect

This Privacy Notice is provided to meet the requirements of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) to explain how we process your personal data in delivering the Registrars Service.

The Superintendent Registrar is the data controller for birth, marriage, and death registrations and can be contacted at The Register Office, Leeds City Council, Merrion House, 110 Merrion Way, Leeds, LS2 8BB.

Leeds City Council is the data controller for civil partnership registrations and can be contacted at The Register Office, Leeds City Council, Merrion House, 110 Merrion Way, Leeds, LS2 8BB

The Registrar General for England and Wales is a joint data controller for birth, marriage, death, and civil partnership registrations and can be contacted at the General Register Office, Trafalgar Road, Southport, PR8 2HH.

Leeds City Council and The Super Intendent Registrar are data controllers in their own right for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018 and other regulations, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation, which means it determines what your data is used for and why it is collected. The purpose of this privacy notice is to tell you about what information we collect about you when you use our service, how we use that information, and who we may share it with.

The data we will collect

To deliver the registrars service, we may process personal data on:

  • your name
  • address
  • telephone number
  • email
  • date and place of birth
  • marital status
  • details about your spouse, partner and children (where applicable)
  • your parental status
  • sex and gender (where applicable)
  • place of death
  • occupation
  • parent’s names

And special category data on:

  • nationality
  • translation requirements
  • sexual orientation 

How we collect information about you

We collect information about you from you directly (for example, by asking you to complete one of our forms, via the telephone through our contact centre or face-to-face). We may also obtain your information from other sources, such as:

  • your family members, carers or other persons acting on your behalf
  • internal council departments
  • other public authorities
  • NHS trusts
  • coroners 

Why we process your data

The law says you must provide personal information in order to:

  • register a birth, death, marriage or civil partnership
  • give notice of marriage or civil partnership
  • request a copy certificate
  • correct information contained in a register entry

We also process your data in order to organise an appointment for you or a ceremony. Our data collection and sharing page has more information about why we are allowed to collect this information.

All the data collected will be treated in strict confidence and in accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The data provided by you will only be used for the purposes specified.

Lawful basis for processing

We will process your data in accordance with UK GDPR. The processing shall be lawful only if and to the extent that the following applies:

Article 6(1)(c): processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject

Article 6(1)(e): processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.

Additionally, we process some of your special category data under Article 9(2)(g), which states the processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest. This legal basis is underpinned by acts of legislation listed below which set out functions and duties of local authorities relevant to this processing:

  • Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953
  • Marriage Act 1949
  • Population Statistics Act 1938
  • Civil Partnership Act 2004
  • British Nationality (General) (Amendment) Regulations 2003

The processing of Special Category Data under Article 9 is further supported by the following condition in Schedule 1, Part 2:

6. Statutory and government purposes.

 Visit the data collection and sharing page for more information.


This condition requires an Appropriate Policy Document to be in place, which sets out and explains the procedures for securing compliance with the principles in Article 5 and policies regarding the retention and erasure of such personal data. Our Appropriate Policy Document provides further information about this processing and supplements this privacy notice.

Data retention, storage and destruction

Data required by law: We will keep your personal information in accordance with statutory data retention timescales; this is up to 5 years. We are required to keep the registrations of births, deaths, marriages, and civil partnerships indefinitely.

Data required to provide a service to you: We will keep your personal information for 12 months after we have provided the service or 12 months from the date you cancel the service. You have the right to object. Please be aware that if you object, we may not be able to provide you with the service you need.

Who we share your data with

We share your data with agencies shown below as follows:

Registrar General for England and Wales: all the personal information contained in a birth, death, marriage, or civil partnership record is shared so that a national record of all registrations can be maintained.

UK Statistics Authority: some personal information required by law is shared. During birth registrations, some information can be voluntarily supplied to the UK Statistics Authority by the birth parents.

Other public authorities, such as other local authorities, government departments, and NHS trusts, if there is a legal reason to do so, for example:

  • statistical or research purposes
  • making sure that records are up-to-date
  • immigration and passport purposes
  • safeguarding

This information is shared with Stopford Information Systems Limited, who supply our appointment booking system

We may also share your data with Undertakers and bereavement services.

In addition, we will share your personal data:

  • where such disclosure is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject
  • in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person
  • for the purposes of security and prevention of fraud and other criminal activity
  • where such disclosure is necessary for the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure

Automated decision making

Your data will not be used for any automated decision-making, including profiling.

Your rights

The following rights under data protection law are available under the UK GDPR:

  • the right to access (where you can ask for copies of your personal data)
  • the right to rectification (where you can ask us to rectify inaccurate personal data and to complete incomplete personal data)
  • the right to erasure (where you can ask us to erase your personal data)
  • the right to restrict processing (where you can ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data)
  • the right to data portability (where you can ask that we transfer your personal data to another organisation or to you)
  • the right to object to processing (where you can object to the processing of your personal data)
  • the right to complain to a supervisory authority (where you can complain about our processing of your personal data)
  • the right to withdraw consent (to the extent that the legal basis of our processing of your personal data is consent, you can withdraw that consent)

Where we process your information under legal obligation, certain rights do not apply, such as erasure, data portability, objection to processing, and the right to withdraw consent.

Where we process your data under the public task basis, certain rights do not apply, such as erasure, data portability, and the right to withdraw consent. 

These rights are subject to certain limitations and exceptions. You can learn more about your rights and how to exercise them, with further details on the Information Commissioner’s Office website. You may exercise any of the above rights in relation to your personal data by writing to us using the contact details provided below.

If you wish to exercise your statutory rights for information (for example, to request a copy of a birth certificate), please contact register.headoffice@leeds.gov.uk.

If you wish to make a request relating to non-statutory information (for example, to request a copy of your information held regarding booking an appointment to register a death), please contact dpfoi@leeds.gov.uk.

If your data is sent to other countries

The information you provide will not be transferred to another country outside of the UK. 

Contact us

Any queries in relation to this privacy notice should be forwarded to the Leeds Register Office.

Email:  register.headoffice@leeds.gov.uk 

Data Protection Officer

Aaron Linden
Head of Information Management and Governance - Data Protection Officer
Leeds City Council
Merrion House
110 Merrion Way
Leeds
LS2 8BB

DPO@leeds.gov.uk 

The council privacy notice is available online.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with the way in which your information has been handled, you should speak with the specific service in the first instance. 
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.

You can refer to the Information Commissioner if you consider that there has been an infringement of data protection legislation. Find further details on the Information Commissioner’s website. 

Changes to this notice

We keep our privacy notice under regular review. We will notify you of significant changes to this notice by email or other means as appropriate. This privacy notice was last updated 12 December 2024.