Privacy Notice for Erewash Borough Council Elected Members
Introduction
Elected members are elected to represent their community on the Council.
Elected members are, legally speaking, data controllers in their own right and must ensure that any personal information they hold or use in their office as an elected member for council business is treated in line with GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
What information do members collect?
When you ask for my help and assistance, members will need to collect some information from you. This will generally include personal information such as your name, address and contact information together with details of your problem or concern.
The law treats some types of personal information you may supply as ‘special’ because the information requires more protection due to its sensitivity. The categories of 'special' information are:
- racial or ethnic origin
- sexuality and sexual life
- religious or philosophical beliefs
- trade union membership
- political opinions
- genetic and bio-metric data
- physical or mental health
- criminal convictions and offences.
It will only be necessary to collect this type of information where it is absolutely necessary and of relevance to the request you are making.
Why do members process personal data?
Elected members are the data controller, accountable for the processing of personal information in connection with requests received from constituents. This means they need to collect your personal data so that they can process your request for assistance or respond to your enquiry. They will only collect the personal data from you that they need in order to provide you with relevant information, services or support.
The legal basis on which members rely in order to use the information which they collect about individuals for the purposes set out in this notice is:
public task - processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.
The legal bases for processing ‘special’ personal data are:
processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or of the data subject in the field of employment and social security and social protection law in so far as it is authorised by Union or Member State law or a collective agreement pursuant to Member State law providing for appropriate safeguards for the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject;
processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, on the basis of Union or Member State law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject;
In most cases, members do not require your consent to process your personal data. However, wherever possible and appropriate, a data collection form will be provided to the data subject, to explain why and with whom personal data will be shared.
Who has access to data?
As a Councillor, they 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. They will not pass personal details of constituents who contact them to anyone else unless they are required to do so by law.
Where appropriate, 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. Any third parties with whom they may share your data are obliged to keep your details securely, and to only use your data for purposes communicated to you.
In any event, they will not use your personal data in a way that goes beyond your reasonable expectations in contacting me.
If you specifically ask them not to disclose information identifying you to other third parties it is necessary for them to contact, they will try to respect that. However, please be aware that it may not be possible to progress a matter for you on an anonymous basis.
How does members protect data?
Reasonable security measures will be taken to ensure that personal information within my control is protected from accidental loss or alteration, inappropriate access, misuse or theft.
For how long do members keep data?
They will process your personal data until they have resolved your issue and store electronic data and paper records for a period no longer than is necessary. This is to allow them to build up case history and to return to your records when further matters arise.
Your rights
As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:
- Access and obtain a copy of your data on request
- Request the member to change incorrect or incomplete data
- Request the member to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purpose of processing; and
- Object to the processing of your data where the member is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing.
In the first instance, you should contact the member that you provided your personal details to. If you are not satisfied with the outcome for this, you can contact the Data Protection Officer at Erewash Borough Council –
Data Protection Officer - Head of Law and Governance.
Erewash Borough Council, Ilkeston Town Hall, Wharncliffe Road, Ilkeston
Derbyshire, DE7 5RP email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Call 0115 9072244
If you still believe that the member has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the information Commissioner.
Automated decision-making
Elected Members do not use automated decision-making.