Data Protection / Freedom of Information

The Data Protection Act 2018 gives you the right to request a copy of any personal data that a government department, office or agency holds in relation to you, while the Freedom of Information Act 2014 gives you the right to access official information.

You have rights under different legislation to seek different types of information from us.

The Data Protection Act 2018 gives you the right to request a copy of any or all personal data that we hold in relation to you. However, we can restrict this right in certain circumstances, for example if we are currently investigating a criminal offence. Please read the section under Data Protection to find out more.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOI) 2014 gives you the right, subject to certain restrictions, to access information, or records held by the Government or a State body, in this case, GSOC. But GSOC is only partially subject to the FOI Act. This means that our investigation and case files are not included, for operational and confidentiality reasons. For further details, please go to the section on Freedom of Information Act, 2014.

As you can see, the type of information you are looking for will determine which type of request you should make.

Please use the menu on the right to find out more about the type of information that can be requested under these Acts, the process you must follow, costs, appeals, etc.

Our Data Protection Officer and Freedom of Information Officer is Pauline Byrne.

In this section you can also find out about our practice of making material available in criminal cases to which GSOC is not a party. This is mostly for the information of legal professionals, who may follow the process described to access information of relevance to a court case.