Letter Acknowledging Subject Access Request and Asking for Admin Fee and Time to Respond

This document has been updated for compatibility with the UK GDPR. It is ready for use from the start of 2021.

This Letter Acknowledging Subject Access Request and asking for Administrative Fee and Time to Respond should be used by employers to acknowledge receipt of an individual’s request under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) for information held about them by a company, where fulfilling that request will be particularly complex and time-consuming. As the UK GDPR applies to all personal data that an organisation processes, employers should accept subject access requests not just from employees, but also from workers, contractors, apprentices and volunteers. 

The UK GDPR allows individuals to access information from organisations that process their personal data by means of a subject access request. The company must advise the employee on:

• whether or not the employee's personal data is being processed;
• the purposes of the processing and the categories of personal data concerned;
• the recipients to whom the data has been or will be disclosed;
• how long the data will be stored, or how that period is determined;
• the employee's rights in relation to the rectification or erasure of data, the restriction of processing and how to object to processing;
• the employee's right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority;
• any third-party sources of the data, where this information is available;
• and information about the logic involved in any automated decision-making, if applicable.

The company is also required to provide the employee with a copy of the personal data undergoing processing.

The time limit for an employer to respond to a subject access request is one month from the date of receipt. If a request is complex, the time period for response can be extended by a further two months. If the employer wants to extend the time period for response, the employer must inform the individual of this within one month of receiving the data subject access request and explain the reason for the delay in responding.

This letter has an optional clause whereby the employer asks the individual for an administrative fee to cover the cost of fulfilling the subject access request. The employer can charge a reasonable fee for complying with a subject access request if that request is manifestly unfounded or excessive. The employer must be able to demonstrate that a subject access request is indeed manifestly unfounded or excessive if a complaint is made.

This document is in open format. Either enter the requisite details in the highlighted fields or adjust the wording to suit your purposes.

Once you have purchased access to the appropriate document folder, click on the “Download” button below. You will be asked what you want to do with the file. It is recommended that you save the document to a location of your choice prior to viewing.

Letter Acknowledging Subject Access Request and Asking for Admin Fee and Time to Respond is part of Employment Documents. Just £35.00 + VAT provides unlimited downloads from Employment Documents for 1 year.