Privacy notice
Updated 11 September 2025
© Crown copyright 2025
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/court-funds-office-privacy-notice/privacy-notice-court-funds-office-cfo
Purpose
This privacy notice sets out the standards that you can expect from the CFO when we request or hold personal information (‘personal data’) about you; how you can get access to a copy of your personal data; and what you can do if you think the standards are not being met.
About personal information
Personal data is information about you as an individual. It can be your name, address or telephone number. It can also include:
- Date of birth details for children who have money in court
- Details of client representatives (e.g. litigation friends or deputies)
- Details of client associations (e.g. their solicitor or if they have an accountant)
- Financial information (e.g. whether a client owns property or other investments)
- Information generated by digital means
- Telephone recordings of calls to CFO from clients and client representatives.
We know how important it is to protect customers’ privacy and to comply with data protection laws. We will safeguard your personal data and will only disclose it where it is lawful to do so, or with your consent.
Purpose of processing and the lawful basis for the process
The CFO is part of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) which is the data controller for the personal information it holds.
The CFO holds personal data that was initially provided in the court case that led to the money being deposited. The CFO will then also collect and process personal data from clients to ensure details are up to date and correct so as to carry out its functions under various laws in place in England and Wales. These functions include holding and, where appropriate, investing money held in court for our clients in the exercise of its own and associated public functions. This may also involve searches via electronic tracing where addresses held are out of date or unknown to ensure that we adhere to our legal obligations to safeguard the funds until such time as they can be released to the correct recipient.
Who the information may be shared with
We sometimes need to share the personal information we process with the individual themselves and with other organisations as listed below. Where this is necessary we will comply with all aspects of the data protection laws.
- National Savings & Investment & their service providers, who provide the CFO service on behalf of the Ministry of Justice
- His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service
- His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs
- Department for Work and Pensions
- Court of Protection
- Office of the Public Guardian
- Law Enforcement Agencies
- National Audit Office and other contracted auditors
We may also use the information you provide to contact you to ask if you would complete a customer satisfaction survey. This might be via a third party research company. We will not contact you for marketing purposes.
Details of transfers to third country and safeguards
CFO does not transfer any of its data overseas.
Retention period for information collected
CFO will only retain information for as long as necessary. This includes the time during which you are our client or client representative and some additional time for audit and tax regulation purposes. This is in line with our “Record Retention and Disposal Schedule” which we review regularly.
Access to personal information
You can find out if we hold any personal data about you by making a ‘subject access request’. For more information on making a subject access request please email: enquiries@cfo.gov.uk.
What rights do I have?
- You have the right to obtain confirmation that your data is being processed, and to a copy of your personal data that we hold
- You are entitled to have personal data corrected if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
- You have a right to have personal data erased and to prevent processing, but only in specific circumstances
- You have the right to ‘block’ or suppress processing of personal data, but only in specific circumstances
- You have the right to data portability, but only in specific circumstances
- You have the right to object to the processing, but only in specific circumstances
If you would like more detailed information about your rights under the General Data Protection Regulations, you can visit: ico.org.uk/for-the-public/
You can get more details on:
- Agreements we have with other organisations for sharing information
- Circumstances where we can pass on personal information without telling you, for example, to help with the prevention or detection of crime or to produce anonymised statistics
- Our instructions to staff on how to collect, use or delete your personal information
- How we check that the information we hold is accurate and up-to-date
- How to make a complaint
- How to contact the Ministry of Justice Data Protection Officer
For more information about the above issues, please contact us:
Data Protection Team
Ministry of Justice
5th Floor, Post Point 5.18
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ
Email: DataProtection@justice.gov.uk
Complaints
When we ask you for information, we will keep to the law. If you consider that your information has been handled incorrectly, you can contact the Information Commissioner for independent advice about data protection. You can contact the Information Commissioner at:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Phone: 0303 123 1113