Who can complain?
Any individual who believes their personal data has been misused, mishandled, or processed unlawfully can make a complaint.
What can I complain about?
You can make a complaint about the following:
- Unlawful or unfair data processing. When your personal data is used in a way that breaks the law or is not fair to you.
- Failure to respond to data subject rights. When you ask to change, delete, or move your data and we have not replied or acted on your request.
- Handling / delays in processing your Subject Access Request (SAR). When we have received your SAR but have not replied in time or you are not happy with the response to the internal review into your request.
- Data security failures or improper sharing. When your personal data is not kept safe, is lost, stolen, accessed by someone who should not see it, or shared with people or organisations who should not have it.
- Failure to provide clear privacy notices. When you are not given easy-to-understand information about how your data will be used.
- Automated decision-making without safeguards. When important decisions about you are made by a computer without checks to make sure it is fair.
- General dissatisfaction with data handling. When you are unhappy with how your personal data is managed, even if it does not fit into the other categories.
Please see our complaints and feedback webpage for further information on the Council’s other complaints procedures.
How to make a complaint
You can submit your complaint through any of the following channels:
- By email: dpo@bedford.gov.uk.
- By post: Data Protection Officer, Borough Hall, Cauldwell Street, Bedford, MK42 9AP.
If you are sending your complaint to us by email or post it would be helpful to tell us the following:
- You name, home address, email address and telephone number.
- What your complaint is about from the list above under the “What can I complain about” section.
- Full details of your complaint.
- A timeline of events that are relevant to your concerns.
- Details of any actions or responses that you have already received and who they are from.
- What you want us to do to make things right.
We are introducing a new online form to make it easier to submit a data protection complaint. This will be available soon.
You do not need to wait for the online form to raise a concern. You can contact us at any time by email or post using the details below, and your complaint will be dealt with in the same way.
What happens next
We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days. We will work to get a written response to you, explaining the outcome and any actions taken within 30 days, if we think this will take longer, we will keep you informed throughout the process, and will respond without undue delay.
If after you receive the response to your complaint you remain unhappy, you have the right to escalate it to the Information Commission, who regulate data protection matters in the UK, using the contact details below:
Email: icocasework@ico.org.uk
Telephone: 0303 123 1113