Rulebook · Time limit
Response to a request for personal information
An organisation (such as the council or a school) must give you the personal information it holds about you, or your child where you act for them. It can extend the time by up to 2 more months for complex or many requests, if it tells you, with reasons, within the first month.
- How it is counted
- Within 1 month of the day the request was received (or, if later, the day the organisation received identity information or a fee it asked for): the same date the next month, or the last day of a shorter month. If that day is not a working day, the next working day.
- Whose date it is
- The organisation that received the request
- What starts it
- A request for personal information (subject access request) was received
- Type of rule
- Law (Act or Regulations)
- Rule id
subject_access_response- Rules version
- england-2026.10
- Law as at
- 30 September 2026
Part of how this date is counted is less certain in the law. Check the sources, and the counting note above.
For a request received on or after 5 February 2026, the month runs from the latest of: the day the request was received, the day the organisation received any information it asked for to confirm identity, and the day any fee was paid. Time spent waiting for clarification the organisation asked for does not count. Plenda counts from the day the request was received, so the date may be later (UK GDPR art 12A).
For a request received on or after 5 February 2026, the law gives one month beginning with the day the request was received, which read strictly may end a day before the date shown. Plenda counts to the same date the next month and moves a weekend or bank holiday to the next working day, as the Information Commissioner's guidance does. That is guidance, not the words of the law.
Sources
- UK GDPR, art 12(3)Law (Act or Regulations)
- UK GDPR, art 12ALaw (Act or Regulations)
- Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, s 76Law (Act or Regulations)
- Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (Commencement No. 6 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026, reg 2Law (Act or Regulations)
- Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (Commencement No. 6 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026, reg 4Law (Act or Regulations)
- Information Commissioner's Office: right of access guidance, What should we consider when responding to a request? (last updated 8 December 2025)Official guidance
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