Subject Access Request to Birmingham City Council

A children's social care file is not a request to this council. Birmingham Children's Trust Community Interest Company runs children's social care in the city, is registered as a data controller in its own right with ICO number ZA317906, and answers subject access requests itself through its own Disclosure Team: Disclosure Team, Birmingham Children's Trust, PO Box 16305, Birmingham B2 2QX, or disclosureteam@birminghamchildrenstrust.co.uk, with its own online form on that page. The council says early help, children's social care and the Birmingham Youth Offending Service are "delivered by Birmingham Children's Trust"; the Trust says "Children's social care in Birmingham is provided by Birmingham Children's Trust". So a child protection file, a child-in-need record, a looked-after-child file or a care-leaver record is asked for from the Trust, while adult social care stays with the council. If that is what you need, what social services records contain and what a council can hold back explains what comes back and why. The Trust publishes how it is actually doing, month by month, which is worth reading before you set your expectations. For June 2026 it records 49 standard subject access requests accepted and 2% answered within the statutory deadline, on a table it says was last updated 17 July 2026. It gives itself up to 30 calendar days for a standard request and up to 90 for a complex one. Everything else is the council's: adult social care, housing and tenancies, council tax and benefits, education including special educational needs and disabilities, parking and enforcement, libraries and leisure, employment records and complaint files. Its two subject access forms show the same split from its own side — the general form asks you to tick Housing Tenancy, Library and Leisure Records, Employment Records, Council Tax or Benefits, and the second form, "Subject Access Request Form Social Care", offers Adult Social Care and nothing else. The council counts in 30 days, not in calendar months. Its privacy statement says "We will respond to your request within 30 days", and both forms say "the Council must respond to your request within 30 days. However, this period does not start until the council is satisfied about your identity, and has enough detail to locate the information you are seeking." The legal deadline is one calendar month, which in most months is a day longer than the council allows itself, so the figure is not the thing to worry about — the condition attached to it is. What a subject access request actually gets you sets out the deadline and when the clock can pause. On fees the council is on the standard line: "The first copy of the requested information will be provided free of charge. We may charge a reasonable fee for extra copies." Do not use the council's Individuals Rights Request form for a subject access request. That route lists the right to rectification, erasure, restriction, objection and the right not to be subject to automated decision making — the right of access is not among them, and it has its own page, its own forms and its own mailbox. CCTV runs out fastest. The council's public space CCTV privacy statement says "We hold personal data from the CCTV system for a period of 31 days after which time the system automatically overwrites it", with longer retention only "where offences have been reported and are under investigation". Body-worn video worn by officers issuing fixed penalty notices is kept 18 months, or up to 6 years where the matter is subject to legal proceedings. A request about someone who has died is not a subject access request, because the right ends at death. The council's own guidance says access to a deceased person's information "may be given at the discretion of the council, but the case may be referred to Legal Services where appropriate", and Birmingham Children's Trust publishes the same wording about its own records. There is no statutory deadline for an answer of that kind. One mismatch worth knowing before you post. The subject access page and the data protection page address their contact block to the "Corporate Information Management Team"; the privacy statement's data protection officer block and both subject access forms say "Corporate Information Governance Team". Same PO Box, same postcode, two team names — either arrives. If a reply comes back and you cannot tell whether it is complete, our free response checker will show you what is missing.

Made under UK GDPR Article 15, subject to the social work exemption in Schedule 3, Part 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018

Councils hold an unusually wide spread of personal data across services that rarely talk to each other: children's and adult social care, housing and homelessness, council tax and benefits, planning, licensing, education, and complaints. A request that does not say which service you mean tends to be routed to one department and answered narrowly.

Social care files are the most commonly requested and the most heavily redacted. They are written by multiple professionals about multiple people, so a child protection or adult safeguarding file will contain a great deal of information about family members and reporting parties. Schedule 3, Part 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018 also allows a council to withhold social work data where disclosure would be likely to prejudice the carrying out of social work by causing serious harm.

Naming the service, the approximate dates and any reference number you have is worth more here than in any other category. It is the difference between a targeted file and a generic council tax printout.

• Children's services and social care case files
• Adult safeguarding records
• Housing applications, homelessness decisions and disrepair reports
• Council tax and housing benefit records
• Complaint files and internal correspondence about you

Deadline. An organisation must respond without undue delay and within one month. It may extend by up to two further months where the request is complex or you have made a number of requests, but it must tell you within the first month that it is doing so, and why.

Cost. There is normally no fee. A reasonable fee may only be charged where a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, or where you ask for further copies.

Proving who you are. An organisation may ask you to verify your identity, but only where it has reasonable doubts about who you are, and it should ask for the minimum needed. Where it needs further information to deal with your request, the one-month clock pauses until you provide it.

How hard they have to look. An organisation has to carry out a reasonable and proportionate search — not an exhaustive one. What counts as reasonable depends on the volume of information, the difficulty of locating it, and the size and resources of the organisation. This is a common reason for a partial response, and it is worth being specific about what you want.

If they ignore you. Complain to the organisation first. Since 19 June 2026 every organisation has had a legal duty to give you a clear way to raise a data protection complaint, to acknowledge it within 30 days, to look into it properly and to tell you the outcome. If it does not, or the answer is incomplete, you can then complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.