Councillors privacy statement

It is necessary for elected Borough Councillors to collect, store and process personal data in order to provide you with the information, services or support that you have asked for.

What type of information does a councillor need?

When a councillor deals with your enquiry, they might collect the following personal information in order to help you:

• your name
• your postal address
• your contact phone number
• your email address
• details of your enquiry

In some cases, such as assisting you with specific issues they may require:

• your national insurance number
• any existing reference number(s)
• your date of birth
• your signature
• information about your health needs
• details of family members

If it is relevant to the service or to provide the support you have asked for they might handle special category data such as race or ethnic group, sexuality and sexual life, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic and biometric data, physical or mental health, as well as criminal convictions.

To collect and use your personal information, it is necessary for a councillor to have a lawful basis as follows:

• ​your consent - you provide your information and ask them to act on your behalf.
• to protect your vital interests -  such as a life or death situation or to protect you from harm, or the vital interests of another person.
• a task in the public interest or where because of their role as a councillor - they are authorised to use your personal information.
• legitimate interests - they need to process your data for their legitimate interests, or the legitimate interests of a third party.

For the special category data, such as your medical information, councillors should rely on the following conditions: 

• ​your explicit consent in writing.
• protect vital interests - when you are unable to give consent and you or someone else is at risk of harm.
• establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity

Who might my personal data be shared with?

Councillors may need to pass your personal details and the circumstances of your query/complaint to council officers in order to allow the council to look into the issue.

If you have contacted a councillor about a personal or policy issue, they may pass your personal data on to a third-party in the course of dealing with your request or query, such as other local authorities, government agencies, public bodies, health trusts and regulators. Wherever possible, the councillor should let you know when they have shared information.

Any third parties with whom your data is shared are obliged to keep your details securely, and to only use your data for purposes already communicated to you. 

If you specifically ask a councillor not to disclose information identifying you to other third parties it is necessary for them to contact, they will try to respect that. However, it may not be possible to progress a matter for you on an anonymous basis.

Councillors will not pass personal details of constituents who contact them to anyone else unless required to do so by law or where this is in connection with a criminal investigation.

Reasonable security measures will be taken to ensure that your personal information received by councillors is protected from accidental loss or alteration, inappropriate access, misuse or theft.

Councillors will never sell your data.

When undertaking party political activities, your information will only be shared where you have consented to the process.

Usually, Councillors will not send your personal information outside the UK. If they have to for any reason (such as using cloud computing servers with overseas data centres), they will ensure that it is done within the appropriate procedures and safeguards as set down by the Information Commissioner's Office (the body that regulates data protection).

Your individual rights

• Right of access - you have the right to request a copy of the information that councillors hold about you.
• Right of rectification - you have a right to correct data that councillors hold about you if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Right to be forgotten - in certain circumstances you can ask for the data councillors hold about you to be erased from my records.
• Right to restriction of processing - where certain conditions apply you have the right to ask councillors to restrict (quarantine) any processing of your data.
• Right of portability - in certain circumstances you have the right to have the data councillors hold about you transferred to another organisation.
• Right to object - you have the right to object to certain types of processing, such as direct marketing.
• Right to object to automated processing, including profiling - you have the right to ask for a decision made on wholly automated basis which legally affects you to be reviewed by a human being.

How long we keep your information

We will process your personal data until your matter has been resolved and will store electronic data and paper records for a period of three years (or, in respect of complaints, 6 months after your complaint has been finalised). This is to allow your Councillor to build up case history and to return to your records should further matters arise.

Further Information

If you have any questions about your data, privacy or the way the Council uses personal information, contact our data protection team.

If you believe we are not processing your data lawfully you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.