The Data Protection Act 1998 became law on 1st March 2000. The Act works in two ways: it gives individuals rights and requires those who record and use personal information to be open about the information they hold.

The Act requires British Transport Police to follow eight principles of good information handling.

Principles

Anyone processing data must comply with the following principles, which are enforceable. The data must be:

• processed fairly and lawfully
• processed for limited purposes
• adequate, relevant and not excessive
• accurate and up-to-date
• not kept longer than necessary
• processed in accordance with the data subject’s rights
• secure
• not transferred to countries outside the EEA without adequate security protection.

Subject access

The subject access provisions of the Data Protection Act give an individual the right to have a copy of any personal information held about them. The Act states that a ‘data subject’ (the person about whom the personal data refers) is entitled upon a written request, to be informed whether or not personal data is held or processed about them.

If you wish to know what, if any, information British Transport Police holds about you, you can apply for an application form at the address below:

The Information Compliance Manager
British Transport Police
25 Camden Road
London NW1 9LN

There is a £10 fee and you must supply proof of identification with your application.

Once we have received your application we are required by the Act to reply to you within 40 days, although we always aim to reply as soon as possible within this time.

You can also download a request form here.