Greater Manchester North Coroners Privacy Notice

The coroner has a duty to investigate and record the details of any death where the cause is not known, or the death is violent or unnatural and any deaths whilst the deceased was in lawful custody.

The coroner is required to establish who died, where, when and how. "How" is interpreted as by what means did the death occur. The coroner must also reach a conclusion about such deaths, for example, accident, misadventure, suicide. Coroners are members of the judiciary and are not employed by the Local Authority.

Your personal data is collected to enable us to administer the running of a Coroners Office to carry out our statutory responsibilities under the different legislative frameworks. The Greater Manchester North Coroners Office covers Rochdale, Oldham and Bury.

The Coroner is completely independent and appointed directly by the Crown. The Senior Coroner for Greater Manchester North is the data controller for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018. This means the Coroner determines what your data is used for and why it is collected. The purpose of this privacy notice is to tell you about the information collected about you when you use our service, how that information is used and who it may be shared with. Information relating to the deceased is not covered under this privacy notice as the law only relates to living individuals.

The Senior Coroner for Greater Manchester North is supported by the Area Coroner and a number of Assistant Coroners.

We collect personal information to make sure that we can carry out our work. The personal information we collect includes:

• Name, address and contact details, including email address
• Age or date of birth
• Marital status
• Identifiers, such as National Insurance number, passport number, driving licence number or vehicle registration number.
• Attainment or educational data.
• Employment data, such as occupation or place of work.
• Photographs.
• Health or medical records, including disabilities or addictions.
• Financial, such as bank details.
• Religion.
• Ethnicity or nationality.
• Sexuality.
• Lifestyle and social circumstances.
• Crime or offending information.
• Memberships of organisations.
• Other, such as IP address.

When we collect personal information it may be about:

• Individuals.
• Customers.
• Families.
• Parents.
• Children.
• Siblings.
• Offenders.
• Employees of organisations.
• Jurors.
• Witnesses.

We use your personal information to:

• Establish if an investigation is required.
• Undertake investigations.
• Provide information required to register the death.
• Contact next of kin.
• Produce a report to prevent other deaths, where required.

The Coroner has a legal duty to investigate and record the details of any death where the cause is not known, or the death is violent or unnatural and any deaths whilst the deceased was in lawful custody. This is detailed inlegislation and guidance including:

• Coroners Act 1988.
• Coroners and Justice Act 2009 and its subordinate legislation.
• Registration Service Act 1953.
• Public Health Act 1936.
• Other legislation pertaining to the administrative and judicial functions of the Coroner.

We're allowed to process personal and sensitive data for the following reasons under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Articles and the Data Protection Act:

• To comply with a legal obligation.
• For a public task or statutory function.
• Vital interests (life and death).
• For employment, social security or social protection law.
• Legal proceedings such as obtaining advice and defending legal rights or when the courts are acting in their judicial capacity.
• Substantial public interest.

We collect information from and disclose information to individuals and organisations that can support our work including:

• Affected parties, such as families or appointed executor.
• Rochdale, Oldham and Bury Councils.
• Other public bodies and authorities, such as register offices, other local authorities, Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Service or the Health and Safety Executive.
• Public Health for statistical purposes.
• The Judiciary, such as the Chief Coroner and other local coroners.
• Funeral directors, cemeteries and crematoria.
• Pathologists.
• Law enforcement and prosecuting agencies, such as Greater Manchester Police, the British Transport Police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Ministry of Justice.
• Financial organisations, including insurance companies and pension schemes.
• Healthcare organisations, including GPs, NHS Hospital Trusts, Clinical Commissioning Groups and the North West Ambulance Service.
• Other organisations, which from time to time are involved with an investigation and who are required to provide evidence or assistance to the Coroner.

• Coroners

Contact the team