Medical records for deceased service personnel

Requesting medical records created after 19901 November 1991

To request medical records of a deceased service person created after 1990,1 November 1991, you can apply in writing under the Access to Health Records Act (1990) (AHRA).

Under the terms of the AHRA, you will only be able to access the deceased service person’s medical records if you are:

• a personal representative (PR) (the executor or administrator of the deceased service person’s estate) - please see the PR section below for more details
• someone who has a claim resulting from the death of the deceased (this could be a relative or another person) - please note that if you do not have the PR’s consent, only information directly relevant to a claim will be disclosedconsidered for disclosure

Requesting medical records created before 19901 November 1991

To request medical records of a deceased service person created before 1990,1 November 1991, you can apply in writing under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

Under the terms of the FOIA, it is highly likely that Section 41 (information provided in confidence) will be engaged. This means the department can only release information held within a medical record to the PR of the deceased service person.

How

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What to include in your request

You will need to provide as much information as possible to allow us to locate the deceased service person’s records and help us to make the necessary considerations.

Please provide the following details of the deceased service person:

• full name
• service number
• date of birth
• date of death
• service (Royal Navy, British Army, or Royal Air Force)
• copy of a death certificate or other legal declaration of death
• any other information you think would be relevant to your request, e.g. if you are interested in a specific element of the medical record

In the absence of a death certificate or other legal declaration of death, the MOD adopts a policy of assuming that a person is alive until the age of 116. You do not need a copy of the death certificate if the person died in service or was born more than 116 years ago.

Personal representative (PR)

A PR is the executor or administrator of the deceased service person’s estate. The PR is the only person(s) who has an unqualified right of access, including any surviving family members or Next of Kin.

Requesters (other than the PR) have a legal right of access only where they can establish a claim arising from a deceased service person’s death. You will need to provide evidence to support the claim in your application.

Submitting

Applying an application as a PR

You will need to provide confirmationevidence that you are the PR with a copy of one of the following:

• Grant of Probate
• Letter of Administration
• Last Will and Testament

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What happens nextPR?

On receipt, our medical professionals will consider the following:circumstances of each case and decide:

• if there is information held that the deceased would not have wished forto disclosurehave disclosed or specifically requested non-disclosure
• whether any information could cause serious harm, distress or detriment to a third party’s mental or physical health
• whether any loss of privacy as a result of disclosure could impact upon the reputation of the deceased
• whether third party personal data can be disclosed

Other useful information

Information about deceased individuals is not covered by any right of access under the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR) or the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018, as personal data only relates to living individuals.

The Information Commissioner’sCommissioner guidance(IC) includes guidance forcovers AHRA,AHRA and covers records created after 1 November 1991: Information about the deceased. You may also wish to read the IC’s guidance under the FOIA: Section 41 exemption (information provided in confidence).