Data Protection Complaints

Our Data Protection Complaint Form lets you tell us if you’re unhappy with how we’ve used or looked after your personal information. Using the form helps us investigate your concerns effectively.

You can use it to tell us that:

  • you’re worried about how we’ve collected, used, or shared your personal data
  • you believe a personal data breach has happened
  • you’re not satisfied with how we’ve responded to your data protection rights request

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, you must raise your data protection concerns directly with us before contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Read more about the information we collect and your rights of access to that data in our Privacy Statement 

 

To make a formal complaint about how we’ve handled your personal data, please submit a Data Protection Complaint Form. It gives us the information we need to review your concerns in full. 

Alternatively you can email your written request to the Data Protection Officer (DPO) at dataprotection@su.plymouth.ac.uk, or make a request in person to a member of staff.  

We take data protection seriously. We’ll review your complaint in line with our duties under data protection law.

If you have any concerns or questions about your data security or making a data protection complaint, please email dataprotection@su.plymouth.ac.uk   

If your complaint does not relate to data protection, please see our general complaints page.

 

 

What happens after I have submitted the data protection complaint form?

Once you submit this form, or submit your complaint by other means:

  • Your complaint will be acknowledged as soon as possible. It will be logged and reviewed by staff responsible for data protection.
  • We may contact you if we need more information to understand your concern or to verify your identity.
  • We will investigate your complaint thoroughly, fairly and accurately, without undue delay
  • We will keep you informed and let you know the outcome as soon as possible.

 

If, after receiving our response, you are still unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, you have the right to raise your concern with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

  • Website: https://ico.org.uk
  • Telephone: 0303 123 1113
  • Address: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Why am I being asked to contact you first?

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018), individuals are encouraged to raise data protection concerns directly with the organisation first.

 

This approach has been strengthened by new legislation, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (DUAA), which amends the UK GDPR and DPA 2018 and introduces a statutory requirement for organisations to have a clear, accessible process for handling data protection complaints. The aim is to resolve issues as quickly and fairly as possible, without the need for escalation to the regulator in most cases.

 

You can still contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) using the details below if you remain dissatisfied after we have responded, but the ICO will expect you to have raised your concern with us first.

  • Website: https://ico.org.uk
  • Telephone: 0303 123 1113
  • Address: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
How will UPSU handle my complaint?

When you submit a data protection complaint, we will handle it in line with our legal obligations under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

In practice, this means we will:

  • Acknowledge your complaint without undue delay.
  • Investigate and resolve your complaint within 30 calendar days, including making any appropriate enquiries, and keep you informed of progress where relevant. If it is not possible to respond within the 30 day timeframe, we will notify you of the delay and the reason why.
  • Tell you the outcome of your complaint, once our review is complete

 

Our aim is to deal with complaints in a fair, transparent and timely way, and to explain our decisions clearly.

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