Privacy & Cookies

Coroner's privacy notice

Privacy notice specifically for the Senior Coroner for West Sussex, Brighton & Hove and assistant coroners.

This privacy notice explains:

• how personal information is obtained
• what it is used for
• who it might be shared with and why
• how long it is kept.

The information you provide helps us deliver our services effectively.

Personal and special category data

The categories of personal data we are processing are:

• name
• date of birth
• medical history from the GP and hospitals
• cause of death
• family details
• lifestyle and social circumstances
• addictions
• financial details
• employment and education details
• occupation and place of work
• offences and alleged offences contained in police report
• physical or mental health details
• racial or ethnic origin
• religious or other beliefs
• criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences
• results of DNA reports and finger reports results
• juror information - name, address, bank account details - to pay expenses
• witnesses - name, address, bank account details - to pay expenses.

Data Controller

The Senior Coroner for West Sussex, Brighton & Hove is the data controller for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679).  We ensure that your personal data is accurate, processed fairly and lawfully, kept secure and retained for no longer than is necessary.

The legal basis for processing personal data

The Senior Coroner must investigate all deaths which are violent or unnatural, where the cause of death is unknown, and where a death occurs while in custody or state detention.   Your personal data is collected to enable us to administer the running of the Coroner's Office and carry out our statutory responsibilities under the different legislative frameworks.

In addition, we collect your personal data for:

• service delivery
• statistical analysis and reporting
• safeguarding (future prevention of death).

How we use your personal information

When deciding what personal information to collect, use and hold, we are committed to making sure that we will:

• only collect, hold and use personal information where it is necessary and fair to do so
• keep your personal information secure and safe
• securely dispose of any personal information when it is no longer needed.

We collect this data because we are required to under:

• the Coroners Act 1988
• the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 and its subordinate legislation
• other legislation appertaining to the administrative and judicial functions of the Coroner.

Who we share your information with

As inquests are accessible to the public, this data will be shared with anyone attending the proceedings, including the press.

The Senior Coroner may share data with:

• West Sussex County Council
• District and Borough councils
• The Chief Coroner
• Sussex Police
• Pathologists
• Funeral Directors in West Sussex and surrounding areas
• Local Coroners - specifically those where cases are often transferred to or from
• NHS Hospital Trusts in the West Sussex and surrounding areas
• Clinical Commissioning Groups covering Sussex
• Ministry of Justice
• West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service
• British Transport Police
• South East Ambulance Service
• Crown Prosecution Service
• Health and Safety Executive
• GPs
• Accident investigation branches
• Registration of Births and Deaths office staff
• Coroner’s Court Support Service
• Local authority support staff
• Cemeteries and crematoria in the West Sussex and surrounding area
• families affected, appointed executor representative of the person whose personal data we are processing
• financial organisations, such as insurance companies and pension schemes
• West Sussex Public Health
• Brighton Public Health
• other organisations, which from time to time are involved with an investigation and who are required to provide evidence or assistance to the Coroner.

We primarily receive data from Sussex Police, NHS Hospital Trusts in the West Sussex, Brighton & Hove Coroner's area and GPs; however, data will be received from other organisations listed above. The data we have includes personal details and/or sensitive classes of data.

We will not share data with third parties for marketing purposes and it will not be transferred abroad.

See our Privacy Policy if you require more information about how we use this data.

How long we keep your personal data

Deaths that are reported to the Senior Coroner for West Sussex, Brighton & Hove are held for a minimum of 15 years.

Your rights

See our Privacy Policy for more information on your rights.

Complaints

See our Privacy Policy for information about making a complaint.

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer's hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about webpage traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Controlling your personal information

You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways:

• whenever you are asked to fill in a form on the website, look for the box that you can click to indicate that you do not want the information to be used by anybody for direct marketing purposes
• if you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by writing to or emailing us

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen.

You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998. A small fee will be payable. If you would like a copy of the information held on you please contact us.

If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to or email us as soon as possible at the above address. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.