The Office of the Superintendent Registrar sits within Justice and Home Affairs, however this privacy policy relates only to the Office of the Superintendent Registrar.
Personal information is anything that can identify you as an individual, either on its own or by reference to other information.
We are serious about looking after your personal information and protecting your privacy because we want you to have trust and confidence in our office and the work we do.
We'd like to explain how we look after your personal information and protect your privacy.
There are rules about what personal information we process. When we say "process" we mean how we collect, record, hold, use, share and ultimately dispose of your information.
You have rights relating to your personal information. Your rights here in Jersey are explained in the
Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018. They are also described below.
All data processing we undertake is carried out under the requirements of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.
In line with the Data Protection Law, we are registered with the Office of the Information Commissioner as a Controller. A Controller makes decisions about how to use your data.
The Data Protection Law requires us to have a privacy policy which tells you how we process your information. This is our main privacy policy.
Your records are held in a combination of electronic and paper formats. Most of our records are available to the public although there are some exceptions. This is in line with our legislation:
- Marriage and Civil Status (Jersey) Law 2001
- Marriage and Civil Status (Jersey) Order 2018
- Legitimacy and Illegitimacy (Re-Registration of Births) (Jersey) Regulations 1974
- Legitimacy (Jersey) Law 1963
- Cremation (Jersey) Regulations 1961
- Adoption (Jersey) Law 1961
- Adoption Rules 1962
- Gender Recognition (Jersey) Law 2010
- Civil Partnership (Jersey) Law 2012 and associated Orders
Why we process your personal information
We process your information so that we can:
- provide you with the services you request from us
- work with the parishes to register your life events
- make decisions which affect you
- respond effectively to your enquiries or enquiries from other permitted bodies e.g. courts, law enforcement agencies
- update you with new or changed services
- investigate complaints
- investigate possible fraudulent activity
- manage safeguarding and public protection concerns
- update other Government and organisations we work with, with relevant information about you. We will only share data if we have a legal basis to do so, or failing that, we will seek your consent.
Automated decision making: We have no automated decision making.
How we use information
Sometimes we may use your personal information to:
- develop policies and services
- review and plan for services
- help with audit and accounting
- develop learning and training
- improve communication and help prevent fraud and error
- provide statistical information to Government and the States Assembly
- respond to Freedom of Information Requests
- to protect the public
Types of personal information we process
Information about you that we may process includes:
- basic personal details such as your name(s), address, date of birth and family members, place of birth, gender, nationality, civil status, occupation
- information about your life events, for example when/where you got married
- your contact details; telephone, address or email
- records of visits or contacts you've had with us
- special category data
- Court Orders
- your photograph and signature if you have completed a marriage application
- relevant official documentation about you
Where we get your personal information from
We get your personal information from:
-
the information you supply to us, for example when you complete our forms, speak to us on the phone, face to face or communicate with us by email or letter
-
other Government of Jersey Departments, for example Customs and Immigration, Health and Community Services and also from the Royal Court
- people or organisations where the Law allows them to share information about you with us
If you don't tell us something we need to know, you could be breaking the law.
Emails
We may use email to communicate with you in relation to the services we provide. For security reasons we will keep any personal information to a minimum in any email we send to you.
If you email us, we may keep a copy of your email address and the email as part of your record.
We suggest that you keep the amount of confidential information you send to us via email to a minimum.
We will not share your email address or your email contents unless it is:
- to provide a service to you
- comply with a legal obligation
- permitted under other legislation
- permitted because you have given your consent
How your information is protected
Protecting your privacy and looking after your personal information is important to us. We work hard to make sure that we have the right policies, training and processes in place to protect our manual and electronic information systems from loss, corruption or misuse.
We take reasonable steps to make sure that we keep your personal information safe in line with best practice, the Data Protection Law and any other relevant Laws.
Our staff:
- where appropriate in law, have a legal duty to keep your information confidential
- receive annual training on the Data Protection Law
We only hold your information for as long as it is needed. The time periods we keep your information for are listed in our retention schedule.
Transferring your information to other countries
Sometimes people living in other countries request personal information such as copies of birth certificates. The laws we work under permit the release of this information to anyone anywhere.
Sharing your information
We sometimes need to share some of your information with other Government of Jersey teams, external agencies or within the teams at Justice and Home Affairs for the purpose of dealing with any of our business.
We will only share data if the law allows us to. We won't pass on your details to any marketing companies.
Publication of your information
We may need to publish your information on our website:
- where we are required by law to publicise certain information, for example marriage notices
- where we are required by law to provide statistical information about a group of people; although your data will be anonymised to protect your identity.
Telephone calls
We do not record or monitor any telephone calls you make to us using recording equipment. If you leave a message on our voicemail systems, your message will be kept until we are able to return your call or make a note of your message. File notes of when and why you called may be taken for record keeping purposes. We will not pass on the content of your telephone calls, unless is it necessary for us to do so; either to fulfil your request for a service; to comply with a legal obligation, or where permitted under other legislation.
Your rights regarding the personal information we hold about you
Under the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018, you have certain rights relating to the information we process about you. These rights are to:
- be told and understand what your information is being used for
- access your record and receive it in an easy to use format
- ask us to make amendments to information we hold about you which is incorrect. We may ask you to provide evidence of information that needs to be changed
- withdraw any consent you may have previously given us
- object to us processing your information. If you do object then we can only stop processing your information if the Law allows us to.
If you want to find out more about your rights, or make a complaint about how your information is being handled, contact our Data Protection Officer using the contact information below.
If you are not satisfied with our response, contact the Office of the Jersey Information Commissioner.
Access to your record
Information we hold about you can be accessed by:
- you
- staff carrying out their duties
- other people (third parties) who have a legal right such as auditors, Tribunals or Courts
- many of the records held by the OSIR are open to the public
On rare occasions, there may be legal restrictions which mean staff may not be able to share some information with you.
It is likely that the information we hold about you is accessible in the public domain and you can access it using our services. For other information, we may hold about you, you are legally entitled to request a copy. You can
submit a subject access request (SAR) using our online form.
Complaints
If you have an enquiry or concern regarding the States of Jersey processing your personal data you can contact the Central Data Protection Unit.
You can also complain to the Jersey Office of the Information Commissioner about the way your information is being used.
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