ICO publishes explainer video on right to access care records after research claims finds that 89% of requesters were left with questions or concerns

The Information Commissioner's Office has published a three-minute explainer video, My right to better records, setting out how people with care experience can make a subject access request for their personal care records, as part of its Better Records Together campaign.

The launch follows ICO research which found that 89% of people who had accessed their care records were left with questions or concerns, 71% reported poor communication from their local authority and 69% said the process took longer than expected, with some waiting up to sixteen years.

The video explains what a subject access request is, how to make one and what to expect once it has been submitted. The ICO is asking social care professionals and organisations supporting care-experienced people to use it as a resource in conversations with those they work with, and to share it through casework and peer support networks.

Jenny Brotchie, the ICO's principal for Scottish affairs, said that for many care-experienced people knowing they had the right to access their records was only the beginning, and that navigating the process could feel complex and overwhelming, particularly for those who had had difficult experiences with the institutions holding their information. The video, she said, was about ensuring the right could be realised in practice as well as in law.

The right of access is set out in Article 15 of the UK GDPR and, for law enforcement processing, section 45 of the Data Protection Act 2018. Controllers must respond without undue delay and within one month, extendable by a further two months where requests are complex or numerous.

The ICO's guidance is that historic care records typically fall within scope of the right, subject to exemptions including those in Schedule 2 to the DPA 2018 for health, social work and education data.

Brotchie said social workers and practitioners played a vital role in helping people understand and exercise their rights, and the regulator hoped the video would inform those conversations.

Better Records Together launched in December 2025 with the aim of improving how care records are handled across their lifecycle, from creation through to access and disclosure. Last month the ICO briefed more than 50 social care leaders from across the UK, asking local authorities and health and social care trusts to commit publicly to implementing the campaign's care records standards. The regulator has also run a UK-wide supervision pilot across 2025 and 2026 monitoring the performance of 19 organisations.

The ICO said it would prioritise enforcement action where necessary against organisations with persistent delays in responding to subject access requests and no measures in place to reduce harm and address backlogs. It pointed to reprimands issued to Glasgow City Council and City of Edinburgh Council in February 2025, an enforcement notice served on Bristol City Council in September 2025 over delays in children's social care data requests, and an £18,000 fine imposed on the Scottish charity Birthlink in July 2025 for destroying approximately 4,800 personal records.

Local authorities and social care providers that have not yet engaged with the campaign are encouraged to access its free resources and pledge their support.