Acting on behalf of someone else

Where data protection requests are made on behalf of adults, the Council needs to check that the person making the request has appropriate authority and that the request is made in the data subject’s interest.

Children have the right to request their own information themselves. People with parental responsibility can apply on their child's behalf where the child is too young to understand.

Where a child cannot understand, which usually means they are under the age of 12, the Council must be satisfied that the request is being made in the child's interest. There may be occasions when we decide not to give information to a parent or when we may ask a child to make a request on their own behalf.