Your Privacy
Great Braxted Parish Council Council is committed to protecting your privacy when you use our services. The Privacy Notice below explains how we use information about you and how we protect your privacy.
Why we use your personal information?
Do you know what personal information is?
Personal information can be anything that identifies and relates to a living person. This can include information that when put together with other information can then identify a person. For example, this could be your name and contact details.
Some information is ‘special’ and needs more protection due to its sensitivity. It’s often information you would not want widely known and is very personal to you. We very rarely need to collect anything of this nature. If we do, we make sure our handling of your data is secure.
Why do we need your personal information?
We may need to use some information about you to:
- deliver services and support to you;
- manage those services we provide to you;
- train and manage the employment of our workers who deliver those services;
- help investigate any worries or complaints you have about your services;
- keep track of spending on services;
- check the quality of services; and
- to help with research and planning of new services.
How the law allows us to use your personal information
There are a number of legal reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information.
Generally, we collect and use personal information where:
- you, or your legal representative, have given consent
- you have entered into a contract with us
- it is necessary to perform our statutory duties
- it is necessary to protect someone in an emergency
- it is required by law
- it is necessary for employment purposes
- you have made your information publicly available
- it is necessary for legal cases
If we have consent to use your personal information, you have the right to remove it at any time. If you want to remove your consent, please contact parishcouncil@greatbraxted.com and tell us which service(s) you’re using so we can deal with your request.
We only use what we need!
Where we can, we’ll only collect and use personal information if we need it to deliver a service or meet a requirement.
We don’t sell or pass your personal information to anyone else for marketing purposes.
You can ask for access to the information we hold on you
You have the right to ask for all the information we have about you and the services you receive from us. When we receive a request from you in writing, we must give you access to everything we’ve recorded about you.
However, we can’t let you see any parts of your record which contain:
- Confidential information about other people; or
- Data a professional thinks will cause serious harm to your or someone else’s physical or mental wellbeing; or
- If we think that giving you the information may stop us from preventing or detecting a crime
This applies to personal information that is in both paper and electronic records. If you give permission, we’ll also let others see your record (except if one of the points above applies).
You can ask to change information you think is inaccurate
You should let us know if you disagree with something written on your file. We may not always be able to change or remove that information but we’ll correct factual inaccuracies and may include your comments in the record to show that you disagree with it.
You can ask us to delete information (right to be forgotten)
In some circumstances you can ask for your personal information to be deleted, for example:
- Where your personal information is no longer needed for the reason why it was collected in the first place
- Where you have removed your consent for us to use your information (where there is no other legal reason us to use it)
- Where there is no legal reason for the use of your information
- Where deleting the information is a legal requirement
Where your personal information has been shared with others, we’ll do what we can to make sure those using your personal information comply with your request for erasure.
Please note that we can’t delete your information where:
- we’re required to have it by law
- it is used for freedom of expression
- it is for public health purposes
- it is necessary for legal claims
You can ask to limit what we use your personal data for
You have the right to ask us to restrict what we use your personal information for where:
- you have identified inaccurate information, and have told us of it
- where we have no legal reason to use that information but you want us to restrict what we use it for rather than erase the information altogether
When information is restricted it can’t be used other than to securely store the data and with your consent to handle legal claims and protect others, or where it’s for important public interests of the UK. Where restriction of use has been granted, we’ll inform you before we carry on using your personal information.
You have the right to ask us to stop using your personal information for any council service. However, if this request is approved this may cause delays or prevent us delivering that service.
Where possible we’ll seek to comply with your request, but we may need to hold or use information because we are required to by law.
You can ask to have your information moved to another provider (data portability)
You have the right to ask for your personal information to be given back to you or another service provider of your choice in a commonly used format. This is called data portability.
However, this only applies if we’re using your personal information with consent (not if we’re required to by law) and if decisions were made by a computer and not a human being.
It’s likely that data portability won’t apply to most of the services you receive from the Council.
Who do we share your information with?
We rarely share any of our information. We will only do so where necessary to deliver our services to you. Where we have these arrangements there is always an agreement in in place to make sure that the organisation complies with data protection law.
We may share your personal information when we feel there’s a good reason that’s more important than protecting your privacy. This doesn’t happen often, but we may share your information:
- in order to find and stop crime and fraud; or
- if there are serious risks to the public, our staff or to other professionals;
- to protect a child; or
- to protect adults who are thought to be at risk, for example if they are frail, confused or cannot understand what is happening to them
For all of these reasons the risk must be serious before we can override your right to privacy.
How do we protect your information?
We’ll do what we can to make sure we hold records about you (on paper and electronically) in a secure way, and we’ll only make them available to those who have a right to see them. Examples of our security include:
- Encryption, meaning that information is hidden so that it cannot be read without special knowledge (such as a password).
- Controlling access to systems and networks allows us to stop people who are not allowed to view your personal information from getting access to it
- Training for our staff allows us to make them aware of how to handle information and how and when to report when something goes wrong
How long do we keep your personal information?
There’s often a legal reason for keeping your personal information for a set period of time, please contact us if you wish to understand how long your data may be retained for.
Where can I get advice?
For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing issues, you can contact the Data Protection Regulator for the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number.
Alternatively, visit ico.org.uk or email casework@ico.org.uk
Great Braxted Parish Council is registered with the ICO as a data controller. Click to view the registration certificate.