Government departments
Subject Access Request to a Government Department
Government departments hold more about you than almost anyone else — tax, benefits, immigration, driving, service and justice records — but there is no single request that reaches all of it. Each department is its own data controller with its own route, and a request sent to the wrong one is a month lost. This page exists to get the first decision right: which organisation actually holds the record you want.
GetMySAR is an independent service. We are not GOV.UK and we are not connected to any government department. Every route on this page is one you can use yourself, and making a subject access request directly to a department is free.
Which department holds the record you want?
Find the record type below. Each linked page carries that organisation’s own published route — the address, the form or portal, the ID they ask for — with the source it came from and the date it was checked.
Tax records and employment history — HMRC
PAYE and self assessment records, and the employment history people need for compensation claims and visa renewals. Much of it is already free and instant in your personal tax account, and HMRC can refuse a request for data you could get there — the HMRC page covers when a formal request is actually the right move.
Benefits records — the DWP
Universal Credit, PIP, ESA and legacy benefit claims, assessments and decision records. The DWP page sets out where the request goes and what to name so the right office answers it.
Immigration and visa records — the Home Office and UKVI
Visa applications, entry and exit records, travel history and citizenship files. A subject access request cannot produce proof of your immigration status or fix an eVisa — the Home Office page separates the two before you spend a month finding out.
Driver and vehicle records — the DVLA
Your driving licence record, penalty points and vehicle history. It is not a way to get another person’s registered-keeper details — the DVLA page covers what a request returns and the free checks that answer most questions faster.
Military service records — the MOD
Service records for veterans and serving personnel. There is a free, purpose-built route for these, and the MOD publishes a processing expectation of up to a year — the Ministry of Defence page routes each kind of request, including records of someone who has died, which are not subject access requests at all.
Legal aid, the Public Guardian and the rest of the department — the MOJ
The department’s own online service covers Legal Aid Agency and Office of the Public Guardian records, and it is also where a criminal injuries or transcript question gets sorted from a records request. Prison, probation and court records each have their own route below. The Ministry of Justice page walks the rest.
Prison and probation records — HMPPS
HMPPS is an executive agency of the MOJ, so the MOJ is the controller — but prison and probation records use their own inbox, their own address at the Branston Registry, and a response time that cannot be extended the way an ordinary one can. The HM Prison and Probation Service page has the route, the detail they need to trace a record, and what to do instead when the person has died.
Court and tribunal records — HMCTS
The department’s online form turns court requests away, and that is a fact about the form rather than about the records: HMCTS publishes an email and a postal route, and the department also sends you to the court that heard the case. What a request cannot reach is anything a judge controlled. The HM Courts and Tribunals Service page sets out all three routes and where a complaint goes when the ICO cannot take it.
Child maintenance case records — the CMS
The Child Maintenance Service is run by the DWP and shares its request route, but a case file is about two parents and the deadlines for disputing an amount run faster than the month a request takes. The Child Maintenance Service page covers what the service already sends you without asking, and a withdrawn leaflet still online that says a request costs £10.
Law enforcement records — the National Crime Agency
A request will not tell you whether you are under investigation: the NCA publishes that it answers “neither confirm nor deny” either way, and gives no further explanation. The National Crime Agency page has the route, the three mailboxes of which only one takes requests, and why a criminal record check comes from somewhere else entirely.
Driving tests, instructors and MOT testers — DVSA
DVSA is not the DVLA. Driving test reports, examiner body-worn footage, approved driving instructor files and MOT tester records are DVSA’s; licences, penalty points and vehicle records are the DVLA’s. Some of what DVSA holds is deleted in as little as 12 days, and the DVSA page has the retention clocks and the two Nottingham mailboxes that do different jobs.
Pupil, learner and teacher records — the DfE
Almost nobody who searches for this wants the department: a pupil file belongs to the school, exam scripts to the awarding body, a student loan to the SLC. What the DfE itself holds is the National Pupil Database, the personal learning record and teacher records — and the Department for Education page routes the rest before you spend a month on the wrong organisation.
Prosecution files — the CPS
What the Crown Prosecution Service holds about you from a prosecution, which sits under different rules from most government records. The CPS page has the route and the three mailboxes that look right but are not.
What the DBS holds about you — not a DBS check
A subject access request to the Disclosure and Barring Service shows what it holds about you. It is not a DBS check and cannot be used for employment — the DBS page separates the two and points at the certificate routes.
Property and land ownership records — HM Land Registry
What HM Land Registry holds about you from your dealings with it — applications, correspondence, complaints and account records. It is not the route to a title register or title plan: those are on a public register with their own free and £7 routes, and the HM Land Registry page separates the two before you spend a month finding out.
Your home address on the company register — Companies House
A subject access request cannot take your home address, or anything else, off the public register — Companies House is exempt from answering one for the data company law obliges it to publish. Removing or protecting an address is a separate paid application, and the Companies House page sets out both routes and what a request does still reach.
School and childcare complaints, and provider registration — Ofsted
Ofsted holds the complaint you made about a school, nursery or childminder — not the school’s own file about your child — and the registration file of anyone registered with it. Its inspection reports are published free and are not personal data, and a complaint you want investigated is its free complaints process, not a records request. The Ofsted page separates the routes.
Student loan and student finance records — the Student Loans Company
Your application, the income information HMRC shares with SLC, your repayment history and the correspondence — and one route covers Student Finance England, Student Finance Wales, Student Finance Northern Ireland and SAAS, so the same address works wherever you applied. Your balance and statements are already in your repayment account, faster than any request, and the Student Loans Company page says which of the two SLC email addresses is the one for a request.
Security vetting, honours and Civil Service records — the Cabinet Office
Security vetting files have their own desk at UK Security Vetting in York, honours nominations are exempt from a request altogether, and Civil Service pension records go to the scheme’s administrator rather than to Whitehall. The Cabinet Office page separates the three, and says which of its mailboxes takes a request and which only takes a complaint.
Consular case files, wherever the embassy was — the FCDO
An arrest, a hospital stay, a death or a forced marriage referral handled by any British embassy, high commission or consulate is the department’s record, and one unit in London answers a request by email or post. Passports are HM Passport Office and visas are UKVI, not the Foreign Office — the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office page separates the two, and says how quickly a consular enquiry is deleted.
Records that do not come from a government department
A criminal record, or a certificate to show someone. Criminal records are held by the police, and a certificate for an employer is a DBS check or its Scottish or Northern Irish equivalent — not a subject access request to any department. Which police record do you need? routes all of it.
Council records. Your council is its own data controller, not part of central government — housing files, council tax records and social care files all sit with it. For care records, start with getting your social services records.
NHS records. Health records sit with the trust, board or GP practice that treated you, not with a department. Which NHS organisation holds your records? covers it.
Records about someone who has died. Data protection rights end at death, so these are never subject access requests, to any organisation. Some departments publish their own separate routes — the MOD has one for deceased service records — and for health records getting medical records explains the Access to Health Records Act route.
Making the request yourself, free
Every department on this page accepts a request made directly, for free, and none of them requires a special form — though several publish one, and using it usually gets a faster answer. For most of them the right you are using is the right of access at Article 15 of the UK GDPR. Two are different: a prosecution file at the Crown Prosecution Service sits under Part 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018, and the National Crime Agency says it processes for law enforcement purposes as defined in section 31 of that Act. Both pages say so. If you have not made a subject access request before, what a subject access request is covers the right itself — what it costs, how long they have, and what identification they can ask for — and our free letter template gives you wording you can send yourself. If an answer has already come back late or thin, the free response checker walks through what a complete response should contain.
Where this comes from
Every route on this page restates what the linked organisation page sets out in full, and each of those pages carries the organisation’s own published source and the date it was checked — follow the link and read it there rather than take a summary’s word for it. Departments change their routes; tell us if something here is out of date.
Last checked 9 August 2026
If a subject access request is the right route
You can make one yourself, free, using the routes on the pages above. If you would rather not handle the wording, the sending and the chasing, GetMySAR prepares, sends and follows up your request for a fixed £20 fee.