Southampton Registration Services privacy notice - Reviewed 6 March 2025

The reasons why we use your personal data

This policy explains how the information we collect about you is used and your rights in relation to that information.

What processing of personal data is undertaken by the service

Personal information collected from you in order to register an event is required by law. The main legislation which governs the collection of registration information is the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953, the Marriage Act 1949 and the Civil Partnership Act 2004. You may be legally obliged by these acts, and other pieces of legislation, to provide certain pieces of information. If you fail to provide information you are required to give us you may, amongst other things, be liable to a fine, or we may not be able to provide the service you are applying for, such as a marriage or a civil partnership.

Personal information may also be collected from you if you make an application to this office, for example for a certificate or to correct information contained in a register entry.

For the purposes of citizenship ceremonies, the Home Office send naturalisation certificates to the Register Office for each individual, successful new citizen. The information provided by the Home Office will be held and processed by registration officers for the registration district.

For the purposes of the Tell Us Once service, at the end of the death registration appointment, the registrar will use the following information from the death registration to be able to give you a unique reference number.

• Full name of deceased
• Date of death
• Date of birth
• Deceased’s last usual address

This unique reference number will enable you to access the Tell Us Once Service online or by telephone to inform multiple Government organisations and some Government sector pension schemes in one go. Please refer to the full privacy notice for Tell us Once for further details

How are we allowed to use your personal data

The information you provide will be held and processed by registration officers for this registration district.

The superintendent registrar is a data controller for birth, marriage and death registrations and can be contacted at registrars@southampton.gov.uk

The local authority is a data controller for civil partnership registrations and can be contacted at registrars@southampton.gov.uk

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.

The Data Protection Officer for the local authority is the Information Lawyer (Data Protection Officer), who can be contacted at dataprotection@southampton.gov.uk

A copy of any register entry will be provided by this office in accordance with the law to any applicant, provided they supply enough information to identify the entry concerned and pay the appropriate fee. The copy may only be issued in the form of a paper certified copy (a "certificate"). An application for a certificate may also be made to the General Register Office.

Indexes for events registered at this office are publicly available in order to help members of the public identify the registration record they might need. Indexes are available in paper format.

A copy of the information collected by a registration officer will also be sent to the Registrar General for England and Wales so that a central record of all registrations can be maintained.

Registration information held at this office may be shared with other organisations in the course of carrying out our functions, or to enable others to perform theirs.

Who we share your personal data with

We will only share information where there is a lawful basis to do so for the following reasons:

1. Statistical or research purposes
2. Administrative purposes by official bodies e.g. ensuring their records are up-to-date in order to provide services to the public
3. Fraud prevention or detection, immigration and passport purposes

We will share your citizenship data with:

1. The Home Office to confirm attendance of a ceremony
2. Law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law

Further information on data held by the registration service and a full list of the organisations with whom registration data is shared, the purpose and the lawful basis for sharing the data can be found at Southampton City Council. Alternatively, staff at this office will be able to provide the information.

Consent

You have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you, to be informed about the collection and use of your personal information, for incorrect information to be corrected (where the law permits) and to request us to restrict the processing of your personal information. In certain circumstances you have the right to object to the processing of your personal information. Your information will not be subjected to automated decision-making.

If you have any questions or concerns about the collection, use or disclosure of your personal information please contact registrars@southampton.gov.uk.

You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office about the way we are handling your personal information. Details on how you can do this can be found on the Information Commissioner's Office website.

Retention of data

Registration information is retained indefinitely as required by law. Other personal data will be held for the period specified in the Southampton City Council Retention Schedule.

Further information

The above information is the specific privacy notice for this service. For more information about your rights in relation to your personal data, see Southampton City Council’s general privacy notice.

You have some legal rights in respect of the personal information we collect from you. See our Data Protection page.

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you should raise your concern with us in the first instance by email to registrars@southampton.gov.uk or the supervisory authority in the UK who is the Information Commissioner.