General Register Office 
Corporate Services 
                     for 
Division 
Ladywell House 
             SCOTLAND 
Ladywell Road 
information about Scotland’s people 
Edinburgh 
EH12 7TF 
 
 
 
Direct line 
 
International   
Facsimile 
0131 314 4344 
GTN 
7166 
 
Switchboard  0131 334 0380 
E-mail 
[General Register Office for Scotland request email] 
 
 
Via e-mail Ms Marie Griffiths 
Your reference 
 
 
GROS71 
Our reference 
 
 
Date 
 
24 March 2010 
 
 
 
_ 
Dear Ms Griffiths 
 
Thank you for your email dated 5 March for information under the Freedom of Information 
(Scotland) Act 2002 relating to the responsibilities of GROS under the Data Protection Act.  We 
have now completed our search and provide the following information. 
 
GROS has not received any specific requests under the DPA in the last 4 years. If we did receive a 
request, we would follow the principles laid out by the Information Commissioner i.e. 
http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/checklist_fo
r_handling_requests_for_personal_information.pdf 
 
With regards to auditing, GROS has an up-to-date registration with the ICO. Our registration 
number is Z5127780 which can be found here 
http://www.ico.gov.uk/ESDWebPages/DoSearch.asp?reg=4468492  GROS is aware of the 
principles of the DPA, follows the legal obligations set-out at this link 
http://www.ico.gov.uk/what_we_cover/data_protection/your_legal_obligations.aspx and carries out  
regular reviews of these obligations. 
 
Records held in GROS are a snapshot on a particular date; for example a birth or a marriage 
registration. As regards errors, the Registrar General maintains a register of corrections, in which 
amendments to other registers can be entered.  This covers an error of fact in any register entry.  But 
it also covers other changes - for example, where the subject of a birth entry changes his or her 
name and applies to have that change recorded and a marriage entry may be cancelled if the 
marriage was found or declared to be void.  These corrections are not, therefore, necessarily "errors 
in information".  The total number of corrections requested in the past 5 years (i.e. 2005-2009) is 
3193 however not all of these requests were successful. 
 
If you are unhappy with this response to your request, you may ask us to carry out an internal 
review, by writing to:  
 
Mrs A Robertson  
Head of Corporate Services 
General Register Office for Scotland  
Ladywell House 
Ladywell Road 
www.gro-scotland.gov.uk 

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Edinburgh 
EH12 7TF  
 
Your request should explain why you wish a review to be carried out, and should be made within 40 
working days of receipt of this letter, and we will reply within 20 working days of receipt. If you 
are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to make a formal complaint to 
the Scottish Information Commissioner. 
 
 
Yours sincerely 
 
R Brown 
 
www.gro-scotland.gov.uk 

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