Right of access

The Data Protection Act gives every citizen the right to request access to their personal information in the hands of every organisation having custody and control of the information. The following are examples of what the right of access means in practical terms.

  • A bank customer, requesting information to their account information from the bank. 
  • A current or former student of an educational institution requesting access to their student records. 
  • A former patient at a hospital requesting information about their medical records. 

In all of these examples, the organisation having custody of the information must respond with the information, and where it doesn’t have the information must indicate this in its response. 

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