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Data Protection Complaints Policy
ONE SPECIALIST CLINICS LTD / ONE ORTHODONTICS
This procedure explains how to raise a concern about the way we collect, use, share, store or protect your personal information, and what we will do when you raise one. It gives effect to your right, under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, to complain directly to us about our handling of your personal data.
It applies to anyone whose information we hold, including patients, parents and guardians, staff, job applicants, referrers, suppliers and visitors to our website or premises.
Concerns about your clinical care, our service or our fees are handled under our separate Complaints Policy. If a complaint raises both kinds of issue, we will deal with them together and tell you so.
How to make a complaint
You can complain in whichever way suits you. We will accept a complaint however it reaches us, including:
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By email to info@oneorthodontics.co.uk, with "Data protection complaint" in the subject line;
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By post to the Clinical Director, ONE ORTHODONTICS, Fox House, 44 High Street, Cobham, Surrey KT11 3EB;
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By telephone on +44 (0)1483 971698;
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In person at reception, who will pass your complaint to the Clinical Director;
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Through any other channel you have used to contact us, including social media, although we will move the conversation to a private channel to protect your information.
It helps us if you tell us your name and how to contact you, what information or event your complaint concerns, when it happened, and what you would like us to do. You do not need to use any particular form of words, and you may ask someone to complain on your behalf. If they do, we will ask for your permission before discussing your information with them.
What we will do
We will acknowledge your complaint in writing within 30 days of receiving it, and normally within 5 working days, and tell you who is dealing with it.
The Clinical Director, or a director not involved in the matter, will look into what happened. The investigation will be proportionate to the issue raised and carried out without undue delay.
If the investigation takes longer than expected, we will tell you why and when to expect our response.
We will write to you with the outcome, normally within one month of our acknowledgement. Our response will set out what we found, any action we are taking, and how to take the matter further if you remain dissatisfied.
Where a complaint reveals that we have got something wrong, we will put it right where we can, for example by correcting or deleting information, changing a process or providing training. Where we find no fault, we will explain why.
Confidentiality
Your complaint will be seen only by those who need to see it to investigate and respond. Making a complaint will not affect the care or service you receive from us, and staff who complain will not be treated less favourably for doing so.
If you are not satisfied
If you are unhappy with our response, or with how we have handled your complaint, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection:
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. Telephone 0303 123 1113. www.ico.org.uk
The ICO generally expects you to have raised your concern with us first, and to contact them within three months of our final response.
How we record complaints
We keep a record of every data protection complaint, including anonymous ones: the date received, the nature of the complaint, the steps taken, the outcome and the dates of our acknowledgement and response. We use these records to improve how we handle information, and the ICO may ask to see them. Complaint records are kept for six years from the date of our final response.
Updates to this procedure
We review this procedure annually and whenever the law or our processes change. The latest version will always be available on our website or from reception on request.