Guidance

Contact Information, Cabinet Office Mailing Lists and Cabinet Office Events Privacy Notice

Updated 7 November 2025

This notice sets out how we will use your personal data, and your rights. It is made under Articles 13 and/or 14 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

Your Data

Purpose

The purpose for which we are processing your personal data is so that we can communicate with you, and run internal or external events.

The personal information is processed for the purpose of making contact with individuals for the following business purposes:

• making contact with suppliers about services actually or prospectively provided by them (for example, personal information about contact persons at suppliers we use, or about suppliers we may choose to use for occasional tasks)
• making contact with individuals to inform them, or seek their views, about departmental policies or proposals, outside of a formal consultation process (for example, contact details for people in charities or representative bodies)
• making contact with customers or clients about services provided to them by the Cabinet Office or its agencies
• making contact with officials in other departments or public bodies (including other governments) to discuss policy proposals or development, communications activity, or operational matters
• Operating or managing a mailing list (e.g. a newsletter) for staff or external individuals
• Cabinet Office internal and external events, including managing invitations, and making reasonable adjustments for individuals with disabilities, and managing dietary requirements

The Data

We will process the following personal data: your name; address; email address; job title; phone number; signature; employer. 

Where we have consulted you for your views, the information may include your opinions.

Where we use mailing list suppliers, the data we collect may include your IP address, your inferred geo-location (based on IP address), and whether emails are opened and whether links are clicked. 

Where we hold events we may process your reasonable adjustments or dietary requirements data. 

Legal Basis of Processing

Our activities are generally carried out as part of our government and public functions. Where that is the case our legal basis for processing your personal data is that processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller (Article 6(1)(e) UK GDPR). 

If the activity is an optional one, then our lawful basis for processing is because you consent (for example, if you have asked to be added to a mailing list) (Article 6(1)(a) UK GDPR). 

Sensitive personal data is personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation. The legal basis for processing your sensitive personal data about reasonable adjustments and dietary requirements is that it is necessary for the purposes of performing or exercising our obligations or rights as the controller, or your obligations or rights, under employment law, social security law or the law relating to social protection (para 1, schedule 1, Data Protection Act 2018). 

Recipients

For consultations, your personal data will be shared by us with officials in other public bodies. This would be to assist in the development of government policy, or for operational reasons.

If you attend events, your data may be shared with our events management platform, and with venues. 

For mailing lists, we may share your data with our mailing list platform supplier. 

As your personal data will be stored on our IT infrastructure it will also be shared with our data processors who provide email, and document management and storage services.

Retention

Your personal data will be kept by us for the purposes of contacting individuals in particular roles, and once they leave those roles the information will be updated and or deleted. This should take place at least once a year.

Data collected for the purposes of a mailing list will be retained for as long as you wish to be included, or for as long as you remain in role. 

Where data is collected for events, your data will be deleted six months after the event takes place (or the last event, if a series of events). 

For consultations we will retain your data in identifiable form for three years, unless it warrants being retained for the purposes of historical records. 

Your Rights

You have the right to:

• request information about how your personal data are processed, and to request a copy of that personal data
• request that any inaccuracies in your personal data are rectified without delay
• request that any incomplete personal data are completed, including by means of a supplementary statement
• request that your personal data are erased if there is no longer a justification for them to be processed
• in certain circumstances (for example, where accuracy is contested) to request that the processing of your personal data is restricted
• object to the processing of your personal data where it is processed for direct marketing purposes
• object to the processing of your personal data
• Where data has been collected with consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. 

International Transfers

As your personal data is stored on our IT infrastructure, and shared with our data processors, it may be transferred and stored securely outside the UK. Where that is the case it will be subject to equivalent legal protection through an adequacy decision, or reliance on a UK International Data Transfer Agreement.

Complaints

If you consider that your personal data has been misused or mishandled, you may make a complaint to the Information Commissioner, who is an independent regulator.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: 

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

or 0303 123 1113, or icocasework@ico.org.uk.  Any complaint to the Information Commissioner is without prejudice to your right to seek redress through the courts.

Contact Details

The data controller for your personal data is the Cabinet Office. The contact details for the data controller are:

Cabinet Office
70 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2AS

or 0207 276 1234, or Contact the Cabinet Office

The contact details for the data controller’s Data Protection Officer are: dpo@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. 

The Data Protection Officer provides independent advice and monitoring of Cabinet Office’s use of personal information.