CPS Contact Privacy Notice
This Privacy Notice explains what data the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will collect about you when you use our online service ‘Contact’ to make a complaint, provide feedback, request a Victims Right to Review or make a general enquiry. The notice will also explain how we may use that data.
You can view this Privacy Notice at the start of the process and again at the end before you submit your form.
We are committed to protecting your privacy. The personal data we collect about you will be limited to the handling of your submission. Within this, you should only provide us with information that is relevant and necessary for us to process your submission.
Collecting your personal data
If you are contacting us on your own behalf, the personal data collected by us is limited to:
- Your name;
- Your address;
- Your date of birth;
- Your telephone number;
- Your email address;
- Any restrictions on when or how we contact you;
- Information relating to the matter within your submission.
If you are contacting us on behalf of another person, the personal data collected by us is limited to:
- Your relationship to the person you are representing;
- Your name and their name;
- Your address and their address;
- Their date of birth;
- Your telephone number;
- Your email address;
- Any restrictions on when or how we contact you;
- Information relating to the matter within your submission.
Optional demographic information
You may have also consented to provide demographic data such as information about your gender identity, age, ethnicity and disability.
The answers to these questions help us to understand how people of different backgrounds experience our service so we can take action to improve it where we need to.
Any information you provide in this section is confidential. It will not be available to the person dealing with your matter. It will not have any impact on the outcome.
Each question includes the option 'prefer not to say' so you do not have to provide an answer for every question if you do not want to. Please note the CPS has a legal duty under the Equality Act 2010 to check that the services meet the needs of people with relevant protected characteristics.
This includes but is not limited to age, ethnicity, sex and disability. Equality monitoring is a tool the CPS uses to analyse the experiences of service delivery by different groups of people and, where necessary, to take appropriate action to improve those services.
Use of your personal data
We use personal data such as:
- name, address and date of birth so that we can verify your identity, if you are contacting us about a case;
- name and address so that we can acknowledge your correspondence and provide a response;
- telephone number, email and communication restrictions so that we can contact you if we have a query or require further information;
- demographic information, which is anonymised, so that we can monitor and improve the services we provide.
We respect your privacy and will not sell or make available in any way your personal data except where you have specifically asked us to do so or if we are required to do so by law. Your personal data will only be used for the purposes of processing your matter in order to respond appropriately.
Legal Basis for processing your personal data
The legal basis we rely on for processing personal data is Article 6(e) ‘necessary for a task carried out in the public interest’. The processing of this data allows individuals to raise complaints, request victims right to review, make a general enquiry, or provide feedback about the service the CPS provides to members of the public. In turn, this enables the CPS to assess where improvements to the service we provide can be made and make any changes accordingly. Is it entirely your decision whether to provide the CPS with your personal data.
Should your matter include any special category data as defined by the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or any data relating to a criminal case, the CPS relies upon Article 9(g) ‘substantial public interest’ for the reasons set out above, and by giving weight to the importance of the public being able to contact us regarding issues they have encountered whilst being involved with the Criminal Justice System.
Security of your personal data
We are committed to ensuring the security and privacy of the personal data that you provide to us. By implementing all the necessary technical and organisation measures we will protect it from loss, misuse, unauthorised access or disclosure, alteration or destruction. Your data will be stored in servers which are encrypted and will not be shared outside of the CPS.
Access to the personal data you provide in relation to your matter is restricted to individuals involved in its management, investigation and review.
Retention of your personal data
All submissions via the ‘Contact’ application will be deleted automatically three years from the last completed interaction and resolution of your matter.
Your rights
Under the Data Protection Act 2018 you have a number of rights that you can exercise regarding the data we process about you. Should you wish to find out more about what is available please visit the Data Protection and the CPS page on this website for further details.
The CPS is the data controller of any personal data you choose to include in your communication with us via this application. The contact details of the CPS Data Protection Officer are:
Jackie Ronchetti
Crown Prosecution Service
102 Petty France
London SW1H 9AE