Can I get Google to remove search results about me?

The "right to be forgotten" is really Article 17 of UK GDPR, the right to erasure, and asking a search engine to de-index a result is one specific way of exercising it. Both Google and Bing operate online request forms for UK users. What you are asking for is narrower than it sounds: de-indexing removes the page from search results but does not delete the underlying content, which stays on the website hosting it. To get rid of it entirely you have to approach that site separately.

What makes a de-indexing request succeed

Search engines weigh your privacy against the public's interest in finding the information. Requests are more likely to be granted where the material is:

• no longer accurate or up to date — an old conviction that is now spent is the classic example;
• irrelevant to any current public role or activity of yours; or
• disproportionately damaging given that you are a private individual rather than a public figure.

The mirror image explains most refusals. Erasure can be refused where processing is necessary for freedom of expression and information, for compliance with a legal obligation, for a task in the public interest including archiving and research, or for the establishment or defence of legal claims. That is why asking a newspaper to take down an old article usually fails: the journalism exemption in the Data Protection Act 2018 is likely to apply where the subject is a public figure or a matter of genuine public interest.

If a request is refused

An organisation refusing erasure must tell you which exemption it relies on and why it applies to your data, and must respond within one month. If the explanation does not hold up, complain to the ICO, or apply to a court under section 167 of the DPA 2018 for a compliance order.

Two related routes are often more productive. Where your details appear on data broker and people-finder sites, those companies are data controllers in their own right: submit a SAR to see what they hold, then an erasure request or an Article 21 objection where they rely on legitimate interests. And where the organisation has shared your data onward, it must tell those recipients about your erasure request unless that is impossible or disproportionate — ask who was notified.