Local authorities must have a process for dealing with data protection complaints. If you believe the council has broken data protection laws while handling your personal information (or the personal information of someone you are acting on behalf of), you may make a complaint under this procedure.
Before submitting a complaint
If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we will need to check you have their consent.
If your complaint is related to a service with its own appeal process, you will need to use that procedure.
If the main issues of your complaint have been or are being considered by a court, we will not be able to look at it.
If we have already investigated the central issues of your complaint under this procedure, or if the Information Commissioner’s Office is dealing with the complaint, we will not investigate the complaint again.
If the complaint is against more than one council, we will only investigate the parts that we are responsible for. We will not investigate complaints against other councils.
If you are making a freedom of information request, read our freedom of information page which explains the process.
Complaints process
Our data protection complaints process has one stage.
We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint as soon as reasonably practicable, and in any event within 30 calendar days of receipt.
We will tell you whether the complaint can be reviewed under this procedure. If this procedure does not apply, we will:
- explain why
- direct you to the correct route (where appropriate)
A compliance officer will investigate the complaint fairly and proportionately. This may include reviewing records, procedures, and actions relating to the complaint.
Response times will depend on the complexity of the complaint. As a guide, we will aim to respond to:
- non-complex complaints within 20 calendar days of acknowledgment
- complex complaints within 40 calendar days of acknowledgment
We will keep you updated on the progress of the investigation where appropriate. If the process will take longer than 40 calendar days, we will tell you why.
If we need clarification about any part of the complaint, we will ask for clarification without undue delay.
Responding to the complaint
We will send you a response letter including:
- the outcome
- reasons for the decision
- actions taken or proposed
If you are not satisfied with our response, you can escalate your complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office. We will explain how to submit a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office in our response letter.
Make a complaint
To submit your complaint, use our online form.
Alternatively, you can email your complaint to: dpo@bracknell-forest.gov.uk.
If you are unable to email your complaint due to a disability or other accessibility barrier, we can offer reasonable adjustments. This may include submitting complaints by letter or telephone. If you would like a friend or representative to support you, we will accommodate this unless there is a good reason not to.
We will not accept complaints made through social media.
More information
Your identity will be made known to those handling your complaint. In some cases, this may include organisations who provide services on the council’s behalf. To find out how we use your personal data, read our Information Governance and Data Protection privacy notice.
We record complaints and anonymise information so we can keep improving our service.