Guidance

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office privacy notice: getting a document legalised

Updated 31 December 2025

1. What a privacy notice is

The General Data Protection Regulation requires that data controllers provide information to people whose personal information they process. Processing information means how we use it, store it, and share it, how long we keep it and how we destroy it.

This privacy notice includes:

• who we are
• what information we collect about you and how
• how we use your information
• why we collect personal information about you
• who we share your information with and why
• our lawful basis for processing
• how long we keep your personal information for
• your rights
• how to contact us
• how to make a complaint

2. Who we are

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) pursues our national interests and projects the UK as a force for good in the world. We promote the interests of British citizens, safeguard the UK’s security, defend our values, reduce poverty and tackle global challenges with our international partners. To do this effectively we must collect, store, share and use personal information.

The Legalisation Office is part of the FCDO. We are responsible for legalising UK public documents for use overseas. This involves verifying the authenticity of the signature and/or seal of UK public officials.

The Legalisation Office, Consular Directorate
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
King Charles Street
London
SW1A 2AH

Legalisation@fcdo.gov.uk

3. What information we collect about you and how

Individuals applying to get documents legalised are required to provide personal data which is essential for the delivery of the service. This data includes your name, contact details, details of your documents and the addresses to which you want documents returned.

This service may contain free-text fields in which you are invited to enter additional comments relating to the selected service. You should not enter sensitive information into these free-text fields. Sensitive information may include, but is not limited to, details of medical history, religious beliefs and financial information.

Contact details such as telephone numbers and email addresses are used to help collect payment and communicate with the customer should the need arise.

Separately from the information entered by those using the service, we also collect website usage information, which allows us to see how the service is being used. This analytics data includes:

• your IP address, and details of which version of web browser you used. IP addresses are anonymised to 2 bytes, for example, 192.168.xxx.xxx
• information on how you use the site, using cookies and page tagging techniques to help us improve the website

This helps us to improve the site by monitoring how you use it.

4. How we use your information

We use this information to deliver the legalisation service, and you may be contacted by officers from the Legalisation office about your application. If you choose to create an account for repeat use of this service, you’ll have the additional option to store contact details and view recent applications.

Legalisation Office staff are required to validate the authenticity of documents that UK public officials have signed. As signatories to the Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents we are required to obtain and indefinitely store copies of signatures of UK public officials.

5. Why we collect personal information about you

We collect personal data for the purposes of delivering the legalisation service.

6. Who we share your information with and why

• gov.uk/notify to send email and SMS status updates on the progress of applications
• gov.uk/pay to take payments online
• GB Group to look up postcodes to find a matching address
• NTT Data for case management software
• AWS for web hosting
• Microsoft provides the FCDO with a range of products
• DX provide our courier return delivery service

There may be other circumstances in which we may lawfully share your data with third parties. For example, we may be required to do so by law, by court order, or to prevent fraud or other crimes. Where we share data, however, we shall do so in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

7. Our lawful basis for processing

We process this data using the following lawful basis:

• public task: where we are carrying out a specific task in the public interest or exercising official authority. This is the most commonly used lawful basis in the FCDO as we are a ministerial department
• legal obligation: to comply with the law

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated or new purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

8. How long we keep your personal information for

We will retain details of your application for 12 months following the service. Uploaded documents and digital apostilles will be retained for 21 days.

Where online payment is made using gov.uk/pay, your data will be held by the Cabinet Office and retained in line with their privacy statement.

We are also required to keep, indefinitely, an electronic record of apostilles issued, including the name of the public official on the document submitted for legalisation. This also includes their signature, the date of issue, the apostille number, and the name of the Legalisation officer issuing the document. This is an obligation under Art.7 of the Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents.

Your personal data will be destroyed securely in line with FCDO retention and disposal policy.

9. Your rights

There are 8 rights that you have when the Legalisation Office is using your personal information. If you have any questions about these rights, you can contact the Data Protection Officer for more information.

• right to be informed: you have the right to be informed about what we do with your personal data, which is the purpose of this privacy notice
• right of access: you have the right to request a copy of any personal information we hold about you and what we do with it. This is known as a Subject Access Request. You can make a request by emailing information.rights@fcdo.gov.uk
• right to rectification: you have the right to request that any inaccurate personal data we hold is corrected or have incomplete personal information completed
• right to erasure: you have the right to request that your personal data is erased. This only applies in certain circumstances
• right to restrict processing: you have the right to request that we limit the use of your personal data. This only applies in certain circumstances
• right to data portability: you have the right to move, copy or transfer personal information from one IT system to another in a safe and secure way This right only applies to certain information in certain circumstances
• right to object: you have the right to object to the use of your information, which means that we would have to stop using your personal information. This right only applies to certain information in certain circumstances
• rights related to automated decision making including profiling: if a decision is being made without human involvement in the decision making, you have the right to challenge and request a review of any decisions made

See the ICO’s guide to individual rights for more detail.

When making a request to exercise any of these rights, please include your full name, up-to-date contact details and the date of your request. If you are making a Subject Access Request, please include a comprehensive list of what personal data you want to access, including any relevant dates or search criteria to help us identify what you want.

10. How to contact us

If you have any questions about this notice, you can contact us at:

Legalisation@fcdo.gov.uk

If you consider that your personal data has been misused or mishandled, or would like to exercise any of your rights, you can contact the Data Protection Officer at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office:

Data Protection Officer
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
King Charles Street
London
SW1A 2AH

Email: Data.Protection@fcdo.gov.uk

Tel: 020 7008 5000

11. How to make a complaint

You may also 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

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

ICO website: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

12. Changes to this notice

We encourage you to reread this privacy notice occasionally as we aim to update it regularly, to keep you fully informed about how we use your personal information.

This privacy notice was last updated on 30 December 2025.