Guidance

OPG privacy notice: guardianship supervision

Updated 24 February 2026

Applies to England and Wales

© Crown copyright 2026

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/opg-privacy-notice-guardianship-supervision/opg-privacy-notice-guardianship-supervision

Under the Guardianship (Missing Persons Act, 2017), the Public Guardian supervises guardians and may investigate concerns about how a guardian is acting on behalf of the missing person.

This privacy notice sets out the standards that you can expect from the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG):

  • when we request or hold personal information (‘personal data’) about you
  • how you can get access to a copy of your personal data
  • what you can do if you think the standards are not being met

OPG is an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

MoJ is the data controller for the personal information we hold.

OPG collects and processes personal data for the exercise of its own and associated public functions. This includes supervision of court-appointed guardians, investigating safeguarding concerns raised by third parties, and responding to complaints.

About personal data

Personal data is information about you as an individual. It can be your name, address or telephone number. It can also include information about finances, benefit entitlement or medical conditions.

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. This applies to the guardian, the missing person they are a guardian for, and any third parties.

Any information received, from any source, can form part of a court application.

Types of personal data we process

For OPG to perform its duties under The Missing Persons Act 2017, we may process the following types of information:

  • guardian’s and missing person’s names, addresses, dates of birth, contact details
  • financial and property information
  • information about benefits/payments
  • health/medical and mental capacity information
  • information about decisions made on behalf of the missing person
  • recording of telephone calls to our contact centre
  • your computer’s Internet Protocol (IP) address when using our online services

We only process personal data that is relevant for the services we are providing to you. This may include:

  • reviewing the report of a court-appointed guardian
  • offering guidance and support to guardians and answering questions
  • processing a fee payment or application for a fee reduction
  • investigating any concerns about the actions of a guardian

In some cases, we may also receive or hold special category data, such as health or mental capacity information, and information about criminal convictions where it is relevant to our safeguarding or supervisory role.

Our lawful basis under data protection law is that we are performing a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority (Article 6(1)(e) UK GDPR). Where we process special category or criminal conviction data, we do so because it is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest and to comply with our legal obligations under the Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act 2017.

The act states that the Public Guardian must, among other duties:

  • establish and maintain a register of guardianship orders
  • supervise court-appointed guardians

To do this, we may examine and take copies of:

  • bank and building society records
  • land registry documents
  • utility company records

Failure to comply with the reasonable directions or requests of OPG in the exercise of these functions may result in an application for the removal of the appointed guardian.

When processing data we must comply with the following legal bases:

  • Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act 2017
  • General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Article 6(1)(e) – Public task
  • Special Category Data and Criminal Data: substantial public interest (Schedule 1 DPA 2018)

Sharing information

We sometimes need to share the personal information we process with other organisations. Where this is necessary, we will comply with all aspects of data protection laws.

The organisations we share your personal information with include:

  • other government departments and agencies
  • the High Court
  • the police
  • court-approved bond provider
  • local authorities and social services
  • the Government Legal Department, Barristers, and Parties to proceedings
  • NHS where medical records are needed
  • the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and Social Security Scotland
  • individuals who request a search of our public registers

We also use approved suppliers who provide IT, case management, payment processing and telephony services for OPG and the Ministry of Justice.

This list is not exhaustive and any decision to share information will be made on a case-by-case basis.

Although we make every attempt to protect your rights, under certain circumstances we have a legal duty to share your information, even if you do not consent. This might include the prevention or detection of crime, interests of counter-terrorism, and safeguarding responsibilities including child protection.

Office of the Public Guardian registers

When the High Court makes an order appointing a guardian, we add details of the order to the register.

Anyone can apply to search the Office of the Public Guardian registers as long as they can provide certain details about the person they want to search for.

Find out if someone has a registered attorney or deputy

Not all the information we hold about an order is on the registers. We disclose additional information only when the request for it is reasonable and justified and where the law says we can.

Find out more about the Office of the Public Guardian registers

Transfer of personal data overseas

 Personal data is transferred to the Republic of Ireland for the purpose of hosting our primary case management system and hosting the data held on the MoJ Analytical Platform. These international transfers comply with UK data protection law.

How long we keep personal data

We will keep personal data only for as long as:

  • we need it to carry out the services we provide to you
  • the law requires us to

OPG publishes a record retention disposition schedule (RRDS), which shows how long different types of information are kept. At the end of this period your data is disposed of. Data held on the MoJ Analytical Platform is retained for 20 years.

Access to personal data

You can find out if we hold any personal data about you by making a subject access request.

To request details of personal data we hold, please send your request to:

Information Governance and Data Protection
Ministry of Justice
Post point 10.38
10th Floor
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ

You can also make your Subject Access Request via our online service:

Request personal information from the Ministry of Justice - GOV.UK

You can find more information about your rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) or our personal information charter.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the theory and development of digital technology to be able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence. This includes the creation or use of large language models and machine learning.

OPG uses AI and other automated technologies to help improve the efficiency of some of our processes. AI tools may be used to support activities such as data analysis, quality assurance, and generating or updating guidance materials. Any use of AI is carefully assessed to ensure it complies with data protection law, aligns with OPG’s statutory functions, and does not make decisions that have a direct effect on individuals without appropriate human review. The use of AI is continually monitored and governed in line with MoJ policies, ensuring your personal data remains protected and used fairly, transparently and lawfully.

When we ask you for personal data

We promise:

  • to inform you why we need your personal data and ask only for the personal data we need
  • not to collect information that is irrelevant or excessive
  • you can withdraw consent at any time, where relevant
  • you can lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority
  • to protect your personal data and make sure no unauthorised person has access to it
  • only to share your data with other organisations for legitimate purposes where appropriate and necessary
  • to make sure we do not keep it longer than is necessary
  • not to make your personal data available for commercial use without your consent
  • to consider your request to correct, stop processing or erase your personal data

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 MoJ data protection officer

For more information about these topics, please contact:

OPG information assurance
PO Box 16185
Birmingham
B2 2WH

opginformationassurance@publicguardian.gov.uk

Or alternatively you can contact:

MoJ Data Protection Officer
Post point 10.38
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ

dataprotection@justice.gov.uk

For more information on how and why your information is processed please see the information provided when you accessed our services or were contacted by us.

Data protection officer

If you have any concerns about how OPG is handling your personal data, you may contact the data protection officer (DPO).

The DPO provides independent advice and monitoring of our use of personal information.

You can contact the data protection officer at:

MoJ data protection officer
Post point 10.38
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ

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

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Website: www.ico.org.uk

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