York Register Office Privacy Notice

York Register Office Privacy Notice

City of York Council (CYC) current data protection notification is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) - reference Z7700853. We regularly review this privacy notice, and it was last updated in April 2025.

CYC is committed to ensuring that personal data is handled in accordance with the principles set out in data protection legislation and guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

This privacy notice tells you what to expect when we collect personal information about you.
CYC is the controller for this information unless we specifically state otherwise in this privacy notice.

You can contact the Superintendent Registrar at York Register Office on telephone: 01904 553190, or email: Janet.Rimmer@york.gov.uk.

You can contact the council’s Data Protection Officer at:

West Offices
Station Rise
York
YO1 6GA

Telephone: 01904 554145.

Email: information.governance@york.gov.uk.

This privacy notice should be read in conjunction with other relevant specific privacy notices that are available in our Privacy Notice.

When appropriate we will provide a ‘just in time’ notice to cover any additional processing activities not mentioned in this privacy notice.

We get information about you from the following sources:

  • directly from you or when a booking is made for the required service such as baby naming, renewal of vows
  • directly from you when you are contacting us about the Register Office services
  • directly from you if you choose to take part in our online surveys

Top of page

The information you provide will be used by the relevant statutory services or other services or because you have asked for a service to be provided such as baby naming, renewal of vows.

We process the following personal data:

  • name
  • date of birth
  • contact details
  • any further information required for the relevant service to provide their service
  • information to verify identity which enables us to sign proof of life forms
  • your photo(s), image or video recording where you have consented to this as part of your ceremony
  • your feedback, comments and opinions if you choose to take part in our online surveys

We may also process certain ‘special category’ data including:

  • ethnicity information
  • medical information
  • details of relationships and sexual orientation
  • religious and philosophical beliefs

If you do not provide the information requested, we may not be able to:

  • provide you with the information you need
  • make the application for the service you require
  • book the service or make the appointment for the service you require

The information you provide to the York Register Office Registration Service will be used to:

  • provide you with the information or the service you requested; this can be one of our statutory services or other services we offer such as baby naming, renewal of vows
  • help plan your marriage ceremony
  • update internal systems to ensure our records remain accurate and up to date with any new information you provide
  • book your appointment with the required service
  • verify that you are who you say you are which in turn enables us to sign the proof of life form

If you choose to take part in our online surveys you will find details about what we will do with your information in the privacy notice for them. You can find our surveys at

An application for a certificate may be made to York Register Office or to the General Register Office (GRO).

The GRO makes indexes, for the central record of registrations, publicly available to help members of the public identify the registration they might need. York Register Office also makes a local index available for this purpose.

See details of our statutory services and the data we collect in York Register Office Privacy Notice Annex A1.

See further information on data held by the Registrar General.

York Register Office will ask for your consent as part of your ceremony planning to share or re-post photos/images or video recording you take with us, for promotional purposes such as publishing in our printed publications, on our website, or our social media (and may therefore be shared across the internet) or all of these. We will not include full names, personal e-mail or postal addresses, or telephone numbers when on video or on our website or in printed publications.

York Register Office does not pass personal data to third parties for marketing, sales, or any other commercial purposes without your prior explicit consent. Find out more about the use of social media by City of York Council, including an official list of sites.

You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us on email: ceremonies@york.gov.uk.

We may also contact you with updates, and/or surveys/consultations where you have given us your consent to do so. You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us on email: registrar@york.gov.uk.

Top of page

We do not carry out any automated decision-making at York Register Office.

Top of page

Please see our Cookies Policy for further information about the information we collect automatically when you use our website.

Top of page

Where we provide services directly to children or young people, the information in the relevant parts of this notice applies to children and young people, as well as adults.

Top of page

Any personal data including special category data that we process about individuals is done so in accordance with Article 6 and 9 of the UK GDPR and Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018).

The legal basis for processing your personal data is in accordance with the following:

  • Article 6 (1) (a) Consent: the individual has given clear consent to process their personal data for a specific purpose.
  • Article 6 (1) (b) Contract: the processing is necessary for a contract with the individual, or because they have asked to take specific steps before entering a contract.
  • Article 6 (1) (c) Legal obligation: the processing is necessary for the council/Register Office to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations).
  • Article 6 (1) (e) Public task: the processing is necessary for the council/Register Office to perform a task in the public interest or for your official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law.

The legal basis for processing your special category data is in accordance with the following:

  • Article 9 (2) (a) Explicit consent
  • Article 9 (2) (e) Made public by the data subject
  • Article 9 (2) (g) Reasons of substantial public interest (with a basis in law)

This is supported by Schedule1, Part 2 (6) of the Data Protection Act 2018 and legislation such as:

  • S1 Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953
  • Regulation 7 Registration of Births and Deaths Regulations 1987
  • S1 Population Statistics Act 1938
  • S15 Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953
  • S22 Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953

You can find more details about the legislation in the York Register Office Privacy Notice Annex A1.

Some of the Schedule 1 conditions for processing special category data require an Appropriate Policy Document (APD) to be in place, which sets out and explains the procedures for securing compliance with the principles in Article 5 and policies regarding the retention and erasure of such personal data. This document explains this processing and satisfies the requirements of Schedule 1, Part 4 of the DPA 2018 and supplements this privacy notice.

Our Appropriate Policy Document provides further information about this processing.

Top of page

Personal information which you are required by law to provide for a registration will be kept by the relevant local registration officer at York Register Office.

We will only keep information for as long as is necessary and then securely and confidentially destroy it.

We will only keep your photos/image and/or video recording for up to 2 years from the date the photographs were taken.

See more information relating to our statutory services and the retention of personal data in York Register Office Privacy Notice Annex B.

You can find more details about how long the council keeps records in the Council retention schedule page.

Top of page

A copy of any register entry will be provided to any applicant, if they supply enough information to identify the entry concerned and pay the appropriate fee. The copy may only be issued in the form of a paper certified copy (a "certificate").

The local registration officer to whom you supply information will also send a copy of this information to the General Register Office (GRO) for England and Wales so that a central record of all registrations can be maintained.

As well as providing certificates, local registration officers and the GRO where it is permitted under data protection and privacy legislation, may make registration information available to other council departments or services, and other organisations, for the following purposes:

  • statistical or research purposes
  • administrative purposes by official bodies for example, ensuring their records are up-to-date
  • fraud prevention or detection, immigration, and passport purposes

We may choose to make the information contained within local indexes available online. This will be done to help members of the public identify the registration they might need. Any information placed online will be done in manner which is compliant with data protection and privacy legislation.

Additionally, confidential information for statistical purposes which you are required by law to give to the local registration officer, and other information provided voluntarily, will be passed to the UK Statistics Authority for the preparation and supply of statistics.

The council must protect public funds and may use personal data and data-matching techniques to detect and prevent fraud, collect taxes, and ensure public money is targeted and spent in the most appropriate and cost-effective way. To do this, your personal data may be shared with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds including:

See details of how we share personal data across our statutory services in York Register Office Privacy Notice Annex A2.

In some circumstances, such as under a court order or safeguarding, we are legally obliged to share information. We may also share information about you with third parties including our data processors, government agencies and external auditors.

For example, if we have a legal obligation to do so, such as law enforcement, fraud investigations, regulation and licensing, criminal prosecutions, and court proceedings.

We will always satisfy ourselves that we have a lawful basis on which to share the information and document our decision-making.

Additionally, we are required under the Public Records Act 1958 (as amended) to transfer records to the City or National Archives (TNA) for permanent preservation. Full consideration will be given to Data Protection and Freedom of Information legislation when making decisions about whether such records should be open to the public.

Top of page

Where we have third parties providing parts or all of our services for us, we have contracts or agreements in place with them.

Our case management system is provided by Stopford and you can find out how they use information in the Stopford Privacy Notice.

Where we use SurveyMonkey for our surveys you can find out how they use information in the Survey Monkey Privacy Notice.

Top of page

We don’t routinely transfer personal data outside of the UK but when this is necessary we ensure that we have appropriate safeguards in place and that is done in accordance with the UK data protection and privacy legislation.

Top of page

We're committed to keeping your information safe and secure. There are several ways we do this, such as:

  • IT security safeguards such as firewalls, encryption, and anti-virus software
  • on-site security safeguards to protect physical files and electronic equipment
  • training for all staff and elected councillors
  • policies and procedures

Top of page

To find out about your rights under data protection law, you can go to the Information Commissioner's Office website.

You can also find information about your rights in our Privacy Notice.

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, want to exercise your rights, or if you have a complaint about how your information has been used, please contact us on email: information.governance@york.gov.uk, or on telephone: 01904 554145, or write to:

Data Protection Officer
City of York Council
West Offices
Station Rise
York YO1 6GA

Top of page

By using our website you are consenting to certain types of cookie being placed on your device. See our Cookies Policy.

Where our website links to external resources or websites, these may add their own cookies. These are outside our control. Cookies can be disabled by changing the settings in your browser, but you may need to re-enter information at times.

Top of page

Emails that we send to you or you send to us, may be retained as a record of contact and your email address stored for future use in accordance with our record retention schedules. If we need to email sensitive or confidential information to you, we may perform checks to verify the correct email address and may take additional security measures.

Top of page

You will not receive unsolicited paper or electronic mail as a result of sending us any personal data while using our website, unless you have given us permission to do this.

Top of page

We do not pass personal data to third parties for marketing, sales or any other commercial purposes without your prior explicit consent.

If we have to share your personal data externally, we require any third party to comply with the principles of data protection legislation, and our procedures and instructions, when they use your information on our behalf.

Top of page

Terms and conditions