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Prison Visitors collection of data notice

Collection of Data

In order to facilitate your visit to HMP Thameside, for identification purposes we shall collected your name, date of birth, address, a biometric template of your fingerprint and a photograph. An actual fingerprint is not collected or held. A series of reference points from a finger print are collected, allowing a unique identification pattern.

HMP Thameside operates CCTV and Body Worn Video cameras. Body Worn Video will only be activated in the event of an incident, however, when activated audio is also recorded.

We do not collect biometric readings or photographs of children under 18, however with the use of CCTV and Body Worn Video cameras, images may routinely be captured.

Data Sharing

We will only every share your information with a third party where there is a legal obligation to do so.

Rights of Access, Correction, Erasure and Restriction

You have legal rights in connection with personal information. Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

  • Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

  • Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.

  • Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing.

  • Object to processing of your personal information by us or on our behalf in certain situations.

  • Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, or object to the processing of your personal data, please submit your requests in writing to the data protection officer as detailed below.

Retention of Data

We keep personal data in accordance with Ministry of Justice retention procedures. These retention periods depend on the nature of the information (e.g. we apply different retention periods to different types of information, such as CCTV, Body Worn Video and your visitor record), and may be subject to change.

If you have any questions or concerns about how long we retain your personal data, please contact the Data Protection Officer at:

Serco House, 16 Bartley Wood Business Park,
Hook, Hampshire, RG27 9UY

Further Advice/Guidance

If you are not satisfied with the way your personal information has been handled by Serco, on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, please contact [email protected] or you also have the right to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office and file a complaint. (https://ico.org.uk/concerns/).