Subject access request made by employee: Example 4

The General Data Protection Regulation 2018 gives you the legal right to ask your employer for a copy of all the information it holds about or relating to you. This includes information held in your employers’ computer systems, so includes emails, internal network messages and similar. In order to get hold of the information, you have to make what’s called a ‘subject access request’ (SAR).

SARs can provide you with really useful evidence if you are having a dispute with your employer. They can also help you in any negotiations that you may be having with your employer.

For practical advice and guidance on when and how to make a subject access request, read our more detailed article.

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[Employer name]

BY EMAIL ONLY

[Date]

Dear [Name]

[Your name] – Subject Access Request

Please make all documents and correspondence within the Company’s control where our Client is the data subject available in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2018.

This includes all correspondence, notes (typed and handwritten), memorandum, data sheets, emails, letters, text messages, instant messaging including WhatsApp or similar and other records. We expect that you undertake a search of the following individual’s email and telephone accounts:

[Relevant email address]

The search should include private accounts to the extent that they were used for work or business purposes. The search should be comprehensive and include search terms for my Client’s full name, her initials, a short name or any name or variation that might be used by any of the above people to identify her.

Should you not disclose any of the above documents mentioned above, please confirm that a search has in fact been conducted and that no results have been found. We may at some future time ask to see the search terms used and the results of the searches you carried out

It may be helpful for you to know that a request for information under the General Data Protection Regulation must be responded to without undue delay (as quickly as possibly according to the ICO’s guidance) and certainly no later than one calendar month.

The Information Commissioner’s Office can help you if you need advice on how to deal with this subject access request. Their contact details are: Phone: 0303 123 1113 and website: www.ico.org.uk

Please inform us by return if you require my Client to pay a fee to cover your administrative expenses.

Yours faithfully

[Lawyer name]

Monaco Solicitors