Our document Redaction Guidelines (166 KB) document explains what redaction is and why you should redact and our Subject Access Request Best Practice Area gives guidance about the SAR procedure, e-learning and drip feed psoters, FAQ's.
Redaction is a way of blocking out information either individual words or sentences so they cannot be read prior to releasing the document. Our redaction guidelines explain what should be redacted about individuals who are not the data subject.
Consider having a member of staff who is knowledgeable about the document/content/process as they are better placed to advise about what is exempt. Only redact the exempt material.
Caution is advised in the redaction process to use a suitable tool. We would advise if using a redaction tool to check what redaction the tool may do automatically as it may not be redacting from the point of view of a Subject Access Request but rather a Safeguarding one and so not be suitable for a Subject Access Request. General guidelines for redaction can be found in our Redaction Best Practice Area - one that redacts the correct data and cannot be reversed. We provide a redaction tool as part of our DPO subscription service: Document Redaction Tool.
Questions such as 'Do we need to redact CCTV?', 'Do I need to redact staff names?', 'If one parent is a requestor, do I have to share information about the other parent?' are answered in the FAQ section of the Redaction Best Practice Area.
We also provide CCTV Redaction Services, for further information about this contact