Principles for securing personal data in government services
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Data security control principles to use when processing and sharing personal data in your service.
Adapted edition
- Document type
- Reference Guide
- Format
- DOCX
- Pages
- 15
- Language
- English
- Version
- 1.0
- Updated
- 2026-09-16
- Category
- Privacy & data protection
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0
Description
Data security control principles to use when processing and sharing personal data in your service. Consult the original guidance for current legal and operational details.
Contents
- Who these principles are for
- Why these principles are important
- Definition of personal data
- Identify your data assets
- Identify risks
- Activities to consider
- Principles: introduction
- 1. Plan your response to personal data breaches before they occur
- 2. Minimise the attack surface when sharing personal data
- 3. Make sure personal data is secure throughout your supply chain
- 4. Process all personal data lawfully and ethically
- 5. Know who owns and is accountable for your data
- 6. Apply appropriate data security controls
- 7. Enhance privacy controls when combining data from different sources
- 8. Match data using appropriate personal identifiers
- 9. Treat vulnerable or at-risk individuals inclusively
Source and licence
Government Digital Service
AttributionGovernment Digital Service, ‘Principles for securing personal data in government services’ (updated 25 June 2025), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
ChangesNeutral text-only adaptation from the official GOV.UK Content API body: headings, paragraphs, ordered and unordered list items and clickable source-link destinations in an appendix preserved. Images, logos, page design, accessible-format request widgets and linked attachments excluded; normalised whitespace, invisible format marks and typography.
Version history
- v1.016/09/2026