Norfolk Registration Service privacy notice

What is the purpose of this document?

This privacy notice explains how we, the Norfolk County Council's Registration Service uses your information to register life events (births, deaths, marriages and civil partnerships), handle related applications (for example, certificates or corrections), and carry out associated statutory functions. By 'use' we mean what we do with your information and how we store and share it.

Contact and data controllers

The Superintendent Registrar is the Data Controller and Data Protection Officer for birth, marriage and death registrations. Contact: [email protected] or Norfolk Register Office, Archive Centre, County Hall, Martineau Lane, Norwich, NR1 2DQ.

Norfolk County Council is the data controller for civil partnership registrations (same contact details as above).

The Registrar General for England and Wales is a joint data controller for birth, marriage, death and civil partnership registrations. Contact: General Register Office, Trafalgar Road, Southport, PR8 2HH.

Further details about us and your rights

We provide the following details in our general privacy notice on our website:

Who we are (and contact details)
Your rights under the UK GDPR (including complaints)

You can also ask us for a copy of these details.

What we use your personal information for

We may use the information about you to:

Register births, deaths, marriages and civil partnerships, and to keep a central record of all registrations
Process applications you make (for example, ordering certificates or requesting a correction)
Share information with other organisations where this is required by law or necessary for them to carry out their public functions (for example, the General Register Office and other official bodies)
For statistical or research purposes, administrative purposes (such as keeping other official records up to date),
For fraud prevention or detection, immigration and passport purposes

We also use your information to review the quality of our services and improve how we work, for example surveys and feedback forms.

We also use your information in other ways compatible with the above.

What Information we collect and use about you

We collect and use the information required by law to register life events and to provide related services. Depending on the service, this can include:

Details about the event (such as Date, Time and Place)
Personal details of the individuals involved and qualified informants (Email, Telephone Number, Relation to individual involved, Name)
Nationality/Immigration Status and Marital Status (If marrying or forming a civil partnership)
Medical information contained in a Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (if registering a death)

A detailed, itemised list of the information we collect for each type of registration (births, deaths, marriages and civil partnerships), the purposes for which it is used, and the lawful/statutory basis is set out in Annex A: List of processing activities for registrars, superintendent registrars and registration authorities (PDF, 223 KB).

Where we get your information from

We receive most of this information from you, but we also receive it from:

qualified informants (birth and death registrations) parties to a marriage or civil partnership
doctors (medical certification for deaths) and coroners (death registrations)
other public bodies where the law allows or requires it (NHS Birth Notification for birth registrations)

Who we share your information with

the General Register Office (to maintain a central record of all registrations)
official bodies for statistical and research purposes
other public authorities for administrative purposes (for example, keeping their records up to date)
organisations involved in fraud prevention or detection, immigration and passport functions
applicants for certificates (where the law permits a certified copy to be issued)

We only share information where there is a lawful basis to do so and we do not share more than is necessary. For the full list of recipients and purposes, please see Annex A: List of processing activities for registrars, superintendent registrars and registration authorities (PDF, 223 KB).

Your personal information may also be provided to a third party contracted by the County Council to provide a service to the Council or directly to you, for example, Registration booking providers such as Stopford, GOSS and other IT providers. These service providers are known as data processors and have a legal obligation under UK GDPR and to the County Council to look after your personal information and only use it for providing that service.

We disclose this information without your specific consent as it is reasonable and necessary to do so to fulfil our public tasks or it is otherwise in the substantial public interest to do so.

Our lawful basis for using your information

We have legal reasons under the UK GDPR to use your information because it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest:

Most processing by the Registration Service is carried out under the legal obligation basis (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(c)). Some processing is carried out as part of our public task (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(e)), for example certain statistical returns. The main legislation governing the collection and use of registration information includes the:

Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953
The Marriage Act 1949
Civil Partnership Act 2004
The Registration Service Act 1953

Where we process special category information (for example, health information in a Medical Certificate of Cause of Death), we only do so where relevant and permitted by law.

For the full list of recipients and purposes, please see Annex A: List of processing activities for registrars, superintendent registrars and registration authorities (PDF, 223 KB).

We may also seek specific consent to use your information in certain ways. This will normally be where the use of the data is not necessary for the above purposes but may be very useful or helpful to us to provide services (for example via surveys and feedback forms).

If you do not provide information

Certain information must be provided by law to register an event. If you fail to provide required information you may, among other things, be liable to a fine, or we may not be able to provide the service you are applying for (for example, a marriage or civil partnership).

How long we keep your information

Registration information is retained indefinitely as required by law. Other personal data we collect to deliver services is held only for as long as required.

How we keep your information

The information is securely stored electronically on our computers, for example shared folders and email accounts, and in paper files.

Automated decision-making

We do not make automated decisions about you.

Changes to this notice

We update this privacy notice from time to time, so please review it often. The date below is updated every time this privacy notice is updated.

This privacy notice was updated on 21 November 2025.