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Data Protection


The Maritime and Coastguard Agency holds personal data relating to seafarers, ship owners and agents and members of the public who have voluntarily registered their vessels.

We know how important it is to protect your privacy and to comply with the Data Protection Act.  If we ask for your personal information we will:

  • let you know why we need it
  • only ask for what we need, and not collect excessive or irrelevant information
  • make sure nobody has access to it who shouldn’t
  • let you know if we share it with other organisations to give you better public services, and whether you can say no
  • only keep it for as long as we need to
  • not make it available for commercial use without your permission


In return, to help us keep your information reliable and up to date, we ask you to:

  • give us accurate information
  • tell us as soon as possible of any changes, such as new address


How to find out what personal information we hold about you

You can find out if we hold any personal information about you by making a “subject access request” under the Data Protection Act (DPA). If we do hold information about you we will:

  • give you a description of it
  • tell you why we are holding it
  • tell you who it could be disclosed to
  • and let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form.  


To help us give you the information you want, we need you to tell us which part of our Agency you have been dealing with and why you believe we hold that information. The DPA allows us to charge £10 for responding to a subject access request. For details of how to make a request go to making a request.


When we share information

We are committed to providing the best and most efficient service to our customers. We may share personal information within our organisation or with other bodies where it would not be inconsistent with the purposes for which we collected it, and/or where we are required or permitted to do so by law.  

There are some cases where we can pass on your information without telling you, for example to prevent and detect crime or to produce anonymised statistics. In all cases - whether data is shared internally or externally – the MCA will act in accordance with the DPA and other relevant legislation.  

Our policy on data sharing is that all information passed to, received from or shared with other organizations shall be subject to an agreement with respect to: ownership, DPA responsibilities, FoIA responsibilities, maintenance of currency, period of validity, and destruction.

To find out more about who we share information with, go to shared data.


The training and guidance we give to our staff

All new staff are given training about data protection as part of their induction, and our intranet provides guidance on all aspects of information handling.