Hartlepool Borough Council - Privacy Notices

What is the purpose of this document?

Hartlepool Borough Council (HBC) is committed to protecti ng the privacy and security of your personal information.
This privacy notice is issued in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and describes how we collect and use personal information about you.

This notice applies to information we hold about you.

It is important that you read this notice, together with any other pri vacy notices we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecti ng or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are usi ng such information.

We may update this notice at any time.

The Data Protection Legislation

We will comply with data protection law which includes the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 which states that the personal i nformation we hold about you must be:

1. Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.
2. Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.
3. Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.
4. Accurate and kept up to date.
5. Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.
6. Kept securely

No personal information held by us will be processed unless the requirements of the Data Protection legislation for fair and lawful processing can be met.

Who is the Data Controller?

HBC is a “data controller”. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use
personal information about you. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.

Who is the Data Protection Officer?

We have appointed a data protection officer (DPO) to oversee compliance with this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact the DPO:

Laura Stones, Scrutiny and Legal Support Officer

dataprotection@hartlepool.gov.uk

You have the right to make a complai nt at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues.

Whose information do we process?

We process personal information about:

• customers
• suppliers
• staff, persons contracted to provide a service
• claimants
• complainants, enquirers or their representatives
• professional advisers and consultants
• students and pupils
• carers or representatives
• landlords
• recipients of benefits
• witnesses
• offenders and suspected offenders
• licence and permit holders
• traders and others subject to i nspection
• people captured by CCTV images
• representati ves of other organisations

What kind of informa tion we hold about you?

Personal Information

Personal data, or personal information, means any i nformation about an indi vidual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

There are “special categories” of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection. We need to have further justification for collecting, storing and using this type of personal information.

We will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you :

• personal details
• family details
• lifestyle and social circumstances
• goods and services
• financial details
• employment and education details
• housing needs
• visual images, personal appearance and behaviour
• licenses or permits held
• student and pupil records
• business activities
• case file information

We may also collect, store and use the following “special categories” of more sensitive personal information:

• Information about your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orie ntation and political opinions.
• Trade union membership.
• Information about your health, including any medical condition, health and sickness records.
• Genetic information and biometric data.
• Information about crimi nal convictions and offences.

We may process special categories of personal information in the following circumstances:

1. In limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent.
2. Where we need to carry out our legal obligations and in li ne with our data protection policy.
3. Where it is needed in the public interest

Less commonly, we may process this type of information where it is needed in relation to legal claims or where it is needed to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public.

Information will be stored securely, both electronically and manually

How is your personal information collected?

We collect personal information in a number of ways, for example:-

• application forms
• over the phone
• in person
• in meetings

How we will use information about you?

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information i n the following circumstances:

• administering the assessment and collection of taxes and other revenue i ncludi ng benefits and grants
• carrying out health and public awareness campaigns
• carrying out surveys
• corporate administration and all acti vities we are required to carry out as a data controller and public authority
• crime prevention and prosecution offenders i ncludi ng the use of CCTV
• data matching under local and national fraud i nitiatives
• Family Nurse Partnership
• Health Visiting
• internal financial support and corporate functions
• licensing and regulatory activities
• local fraud initiatives
• maintaining our own accounts and records
• managing archived records for historical and research reasons
• managing our property
• marketing our local tourism
• promoting the services we provide
• providing leisure and cultural services
• provision of education
• School Nursing
• supporti ng and managi ng our employees
• the provision of all commercial services including the admi nistration and enforcement of parking regulations and restrictions
• the provision of all non-commercial activities i ncluding refuse collections from residential properties,
• the provision of social services
• undertaking research
• in emergency situations e.g emergency response and recovery

Situations in which we will use your personal information

The situations i n which we will process your personal information are listed below. Specific grounds for processing your personal data are detailed in each service area’s privacy notice. 

• (a) where you have given clear consent for us to process your personal data for this specific purpose (CONSENT)
• (b) where the processing is necessary for a contract we have with you, or because you have asked us to take specific steps before entering into a contract. (CONTRACT)
• (c)where the processing is necessary for us to comply with the law (LAW)
• (d) where the processing is necessary to protect someone’s life. (VITAL ITERESTS)
• (e) where the processing is necessary for us to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis i n law namely (PUBLIC TASK)

Some of the above grounds for processing will overlap and there may be more than one ground which justifies our use of your personal information.

What if I don’t want to provide personal information?

If you fail to provide certain i nformation when requested, we may not be able to provide you with a Council service, or we may be prevented from complyi ng wi th our legal obligations.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal i nformation for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal i nformation for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal i nformation without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is req uired or permitted by law.

Does HBC need your consent?

We do not need your consent if we use special categories of your personal i nformation in accordance with our written policy to carry out our legal obligations or exercise specific rights as required by law. In limited circumstances, we may approach you for your written consent to allow us to process certain particularly sensitive data. If we do so, we will provide you with full details of the information that we would like and the reason we need it, so that you can carefully consider whether you wish to consent.

Automated Decision Making

Automated decision-maki ng takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human i ntervention. We are allowed to use automated decision-making i n the following circumstances:

• Where we have notified you of the decision and given you 21 days to request a reconsideration.
• Where it is necessary to perform the contract with you and appropriate measures are in place to safeguard your rights.
• In limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent and where appropriate measures are in place to safeguard your rights.

If we make an automated decision on the basis of any particularly sensitive personal information, we must have either your explicit written consent or it must be justified in the public interest, and we must also put i n place appropriate measures to safeguard your rights.

You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making, unless we have a lawful basis for doing so and we have notified you.

Data Sharing

We may have to share your data with third parties, i ncludi ng third-party service providers and other entities in the group.

We require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it i n accordance with the law.

We will not transfer your personal information outside the EU.

Why might you share my personal information with third parties?

We sometimes need to share i nformation with the indi viduals we process information about and other organisations. Where this is necessary we are required to comply with all aspects of the data protection act. What follows is a description of the types of organisations we may need to share some of the personal i nformation we process with for one or more reasons.

This authority/organisation 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, or where undertaking a public function, in order to prevent and detect fraud. The Cabinet Office is responsible for carrying out data matching exercises. Further information can be found here www.hartlepool.gov.uk/fair-processing-notice

Where necessary or required we share information with:

• courts and tribunals
• courts, prisons
• credit reference agencies
• current past and prospective employers
• customers
• customs and excise
• data processors
• debt collection and tracing agencies
• educators and exami ning bodies
• family, associates or representati ves of the person whose personal data we are processing
• financial organisations
• healthcare professionals
• healthcare, social and welfare organisations
• housing associations and landlords
• international law enforcement agencies and bodies
• law enforcement and prosecuti ng authorities
• legal representati ves, defence solicitors
• licensing authorities
• local and central government
• ombudsman and regulatory authorities
• other police forces, non-home office police forces
• partner agencies, approved organisations and i ndividuals worki ng with the police
• police complaints authority
• police forces
• political organisations
• press and the media
• private i nvestigators
• professional advisers and consultants
• professional bodies
• providers of goods and services
• regulatory bodies
• religious organisations
• security companies
• service providers
• students and pupils i ncludi ng their relatives, guardians, carers or representatives
• survey and research organisations
• the disclosure and barring service
• trade unions
• voluntary and charitable organisations

Which third-parties process my personal information?

”Third parties” includes third-party service providers (includi ng contractors and designated agents). The third-parties processing personal information about you are detailed in each service area’s pri vacy notice, which can be viewed at www.hartlepool.gov,uk/privacy-notices.

How secure is my information with third-party service providers?

All our third-party service providers are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third -party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Data Security

We have put i n place measures to protect the security of your information. Details of these measures are available upon request.

Third parties will only process your personal information on our i nstructions and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure.

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal i nformation from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know.

They will only process your personal information on our i nstructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. Details of these measures may be obtained from the Data Protection Officer.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

Data Retention

How long will you use my information for?

We wi ll only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfyi ng any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal i nformation are available in our retention policy which is available from www.hartlepool.gov.uk/retention-schedules.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such i nformation without further notice to you.

Rights of Access, Correction, Erasure and restriction

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us i nformed if your personal i nformation changes during your worki ng relationship with us.

Your rights in connection with personal information

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

• Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction of the personal i nformation that we hold about you. This enables you to have any i ncomplete or inaccurate i nformation we hold about you corrected.
• Request erasure of your personal i nformation. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us conti nuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processi ng (see below).
• Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processi ng on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketi ng purposes.
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal i nformation. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
• Request the transfer of your personal i nformation to another party.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal i nformation, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal i nformation to another party, please contact the Data Protection Officer in writing.

For further information on your rights please visit: www.hartlepool.gov.uk/GDPR

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee for photocopying.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal i nformation is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

Right to withdraw consent

In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact the Data Protection Officer. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

We reserve the right to update this pri vacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please contact the DPO.