Privacy Notice - How the Council use’s your information

Hartlepool Borough Council is committed to compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998, as well as your rights to confidentiality and respect for privacy. The council will ensure that it keeps your personal information accurate and secure to provide you with efficient services.

What is Personal Data?

Personal Data is information that relates to a living individual who can be identified either:

• From the information or
• From the information combined with any other information which is already in the possession of, or likely to come into the possession of, the person or organisation holding information.

The information includes any expression of opinion about the individual, and any indication of the intentions of the data controller or any other person in respect of the individual. Personal data will therefore cover basic details such as name, address, date of birth and telephone numbers.

The council must always comply with the 8 Principles of Data Protection when handling your personal information. These principles state that data must be:-

• Fairly and lawfully processed
• Processed for limited purposes
• Adequate, relevant and not excessive
• Accurate and up to date
• Not kept for longer than is necessary
• Processed in line with your rights
• Secure
• Not transferred to other countries without adequate protection

What is Sensitive Personal Data?

Certain data is also categorised as 'Sensitive Personal Data', for example:

• Racial or ethnic origin 
• Physical or mental health or condition 
• Sexual life 
• Offences (including alleged offences) 
• Religious or other beliefs of a similar nature

The law says explicit consent should be sought before using your Sensitive Personal Information. Usually your consent will be sought when you make an application for council services.

How Hartlepool Borough Council uses your information

The council will only use the information it holds about you for the purpose you provided it. It will also only collect the minimum information necessary to fulfil that purpose. When it no longer has a need to keep information about you, it will be disposed of in a secure manner.

At the time of collecting your information, the council will inform you for what purpose the information is required, what it will be used for and with whom it will be shared. Please note, however, that the council is required to share your information on occasion with other departments within the Council and some third parties, such as agencies that help reduce crime or investigate fraud.

In particular, it will use information about you on the following basis:

• For all law enforcement, regulation and licensing, criminal prosecutions and court proceedings, the council will use all the information it holds to undertake those functions efficiently and effectively. The council may also need to share your personal and sensitive information with other councils and partner agencies.
• For all uses of information relating to situations where money is owed to the council or the council is making a payment in response to a claim for grants, housing or council tax benefits, your personal information (other than just your name, address, dates of occupancy etc.) will be kept secure and used only for that range of purposes (and for the reasons stated above).

  By processing your personal data in this way, the council can ensure that it is able to:

  • provide you with a better level of service, ensuring that its information about you is accurate and up to date;
  • ensure that public money is spent wisely and efficiently;
  • avoid people being paid money to which they are not entitled;
  • avoid having to ask people to pay money back when it has been paid to them incorrectly;
  • reduce fraud and crime generally.
    
•  The Council will seek to ensure that your personal data is used appropriately, so that it treats you as its customer and minimises inefficiency. The council will always try to keep all its records up to date and accurate.
• The council will not pass any of your information to any other organisation unless either you ask it to or the law requires it to.

Why does the council collect and retain personal data?

To provide you with efficient and effective services, Hartlepool Borough Council needs to collect personal data. The council may also need to share your personal data with other service providers who are contracted to carry out services on its behalf. These providers are obliged to keep your personal details secure and use them only to fulfil your service request.

Sharing information between Council departments and other partner agencies

The council has a responsibility to promote social wellbeing and to work with other councils and partner agencies such as the Police, Fire & Rescue Service, the voluntary services and the Health Service in order to preserve life, reduce accidents, reduce crime and disorder and improve health. To promote this social wellbeing and reduce crime and disorder the council may need to share your personal and sensitive information with other departments, other councils and/or partner agencies for example HM revenues and Customs, Courts, Department of Works and Pensions, UK Border Agency etc. Such information will only be shared where we are required to do so by law or with your consent.

Council Tax/Housing Benefit - how information you supply could be used.

The information that you provide will be processed in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 and relevant legislation.  We have a duty to protect the public funds we administer and may use information held about you for the prevention and detection of fraud and other lawful purposes.  This may include, but not be limited to, matching benefit data with electoral registration records. 

We will also use the information for the purpose of performing any of our statutory enforcement duties, for example our duties under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 in relation to anti-social behaviour.  We will make disclosures required by law and may also share this information with other bodies responsible for detecting / preventing fraud or auditing / administering public funds. 

Council Tax and Housing Benefit data may be supplied to Experian (a Credit Reference Agency) for the purpose of data matching; this may include a check on undeclared cohabiters. 

How we use Information about Children

For further information in relation to how we use information relating to children please follow this link:

http://www.hartlepool.gov.uk/info/200086/schools_and_colleges/1020/privacy_notices

Our Website

Click here to access our Website Privacy Policy

http://www.hartlepool.gov.uk/info/200031/data_protection_and_freedom_of_information/1579/website_privacy_statement

The Audit Commission

Hartlepool Borough Council is required by law to protect the public funds it administers. It may share information provided to it with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds to prevent and detect fraud.

The Audit Commission appoints the auditor to audit the accounts of Hartlepool Borough Council. It is also responsible for carrying out data matching exercises.

Data matching involves comparing computer records held by one organisation against other computer records held by the same or another organisation to see how far they match. This usually involves personal information. Computerised data matching allows potentially fraudulent claims and payments to be identified. Where a match is found, it indicates that there is an inconsistency which requires further investigation. No assumption can be made as to whether fraud has taken place, there is some kind of error or there is another explanation for the discrepancy until an investigation is carried out.

The Audit Commission currently requires the council to participate in a data matching exercise to assist in the prevention and detection of fraud. The council has been asked to provide particular sets of data to the Audit Commission for matching for each exercise. These are set out in the Audit Commission's guidance, which can be found at www.audit-commission.gov.uk/nfi.

The use of data by the Audit Commission in a data matching exercise is carried out with statutory authority under its powers in Part 2A of the Audit Commission Act 1998. It does not require the consent of the individuals concerned under the Data Protection Act 1998.

Data matching by the Audit Commission is subject to a code of practice. This may be found at www.audit-commission.gov.uk/nfi.

For further information on the Audit Commission's legal powers and the reasons why it matches particular information:

• visit www.audit-commission.gov.uk;
• phone the Head of NFI on 0844 798 3131 or 0117 975 3131 or
• email: public-enquiries@audit-commission.gov.uk.

Further information

For further information on data matching at Hartlepool Borough Council, the use of your data or making a subject access request for copies of your personal data held by the Council, please use the contact details below.