The College of Arms and its officers process and retain personal data in a variety of ways according to the nature of the work being undertaken. This page explains our policy in this area.

As stated in full here, if you send an enquiry to the College through this website or otherwise by email your enquiry will be deleted after three years unless you have by then retained the professional services of the College or an officer of arms.

If you retain the professional services of an officer of arms for any purpose, the personal data relating to yourself or others that you communicate to that officer in the course of doing so will be processed together with your correspondence and held in the case file, in automated and non-automated searchable systems, as part of the records of that officer's practice. These files are not part of the records or collections of the College of Arms and material from them is not produced to public enquirers. An officer's practice files may in certain circumstances, and only with the officer's consent, be consulted by other officers of the College of Arms. The legal basis for this processing and retention is the legitimate interest of the officer's practice and the College of Arms in ensuring that professional work carried out for clients is properly recorded, so as to facilitate return or repeat work, general efficiency, and the investigation of complaints.

Some types of professional service that may be carried out for you by officers of arms necessarily require the College of Arms itself to process and retain personal data supplied by you. Broadly defined, these services are as follows.

• If you receive a grant of arms, the text of the grant will contain some personal data supplied by you. A full copy of the grant will be enrolled in the College's official records and retained there permanently. The relevant series of the College of Arms records are a non-automated searchable system from which the grant will be extracted in full or abstracted in response to relevant public enquiries. In addition the College will retain your application for a grant of arms (the document known as a 'memorial') and the Earl Marshal's Warrant to the Kings of Arms instructing them to make the grant, together with the personal data therein. It may also retain a 'rationale' of the design of the coat of arms you are granted, which may contain some relevant personal data. This material will be retained in both automated and non-automated searchable systems; it does not form part of the College's official records and will not be produced in response to public enquiries. The legal basis for this processing and retention by the College of Arms is the College's public task as the recognised body administering and recording grants of arms on behalf of the Crown, as stated in law and affirmed in the letters patent appointing its senior officers, the Kings of Arms.

• If you place a pedigree on record with us, or update a pedigree that is already on record, the pedigree or update may contain personal data relating to yourself and/or others (some of these data being potentially sensitive or 'special category' data). The pedigree and update will be enrolled in the College's official records and retained there permanently. The relevant series of the College of Arms records are a non-automated system, searchable by surname and not (in general) by individual name, from which the pedigree and any relevant updates will be extracted in full or abstracted in response to relevant public enquiries; however no such extract or abstract will contain personal data relating to persons who are living (or may reaonably be presumed to be living). The draft version of the pedigree (which may contain more personal data than the recorded version) will be retained by the College in a non-automated system searchable by surname and not (in general) by individual name; it does not form part of the College's official records and will not be produced in response to public enquiries. Before the pedigree or update is accepted for recording you will be asked to sign a data protection consent form indicating that you consent to the ways in which the College of Arms will process the personal data it contains.

• If you seek and obtain a Royal Warrant or Licence for change of name, change or assumption of arms, or for precedence, a copy of your Petition to the Crown and of the resulting Royal Warrant or Licence will be entered into the College's official records and retained there permanently. The relevant series of the College of Arms records are a non-automated searchable system from which the deed will be extracted in full or abstracted in response to relevant public enquiries. The legal basis for this processing and retention is the College's public task to record such instruments as expressly imposed and affirmed by the Crown in each Royal Warrant or Licence.

• If you enrol a change of name deed in the records of the College of Arms a copy of the deed will be entered into the College's official records and retained there permanently. The relevant series of the College of Arms records are a non-automated searchable system from which the deed will be extracted in full or abstracted in response to relevant public enquiries. In addition the College will retain the original of the deed itself and all affidavits you submit in support of the enrollment, as well as originals and/or copies of birth and marriage certificates. This material does not form part of the College's official records and will not be produced in response to public enquiries. The legal basis for this processing and retention is the College's public task to act as a recognised place of enrollment of change of name deeds.

The College of Arms produces an electronic newsletter in which selected instances of entries in the College's official records are briefly summarized. Grants of arms and enrolled Royal Warrants or Licences may be summarized in the newsletter, though this is done in such a way as to minimize the personal data relating to living persons. Recorded pedigrees may also be summarized, but without the inclusion of any personal data relating to living persons.

In no circumstances will the personal data you supply be used for direct marketing or publicity purposes, either by the College of Arms or by any officer of arms.

If you require further information on the data protection policies of the College of Arms and its officers in relation to enquirers or professional clients, please contact the Officer in Waiting through the enquiry form on this website (here) or an officer whose services you have already retained.

Finally, the College of Arms processes and retains personal data in other contexts such as the use of the Student Room by scholars and others to consult College books and manuscripts, the provision of images for reproduction or study, and the hosting of evening tours. If you contact us with a view to any activity where your or others' personal data will be processed and retained, our policy and its legal basis will be fully set out to you. The College of Arms and its officers take seriously all obligations to which they may be liable under applicable data protection legislation.