Privacy notices

Our commitment to being transparent about the use of your personal information

Hartlepool Borough Council (HBC) is committed to protecting 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 privacy notices we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using 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 information we hold about you must be:

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

Hartlepool Borough Council
Civic Centre
Hartlepool TS24 8AY

dataprotection@hartlepool.gov.uk

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

What kind of information we hold about you?

Personal Information

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual 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 orientation 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 criminal convictions and offences.

”Special categories” of particularly sensitive personal information require higher levels of protection. We need to have further justification for collecting, storing and using this type of personal information. We may process special categories of personal information in the following circumstances:

In limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent.
Where we need to carry out our legal obligations and in li ne with our data protection policy.
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 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 including benefits and grants
carrying out health and public awareness campaigns
carrying out surveys
corporate administration and all activities we are required to carry out as a data controller and public authority
crime prevention and prosecution offenders including the use of CCTV
data matching under local and national fraud initiatives
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
supporting and managing our employees
the provision of all commercial services including the administration and enforcement of parking regulations and restrictions
the provision of all non-commercial activities including 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.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal information 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 information 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 information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Does HBC need your consent?

We do not need your consent if we use special categories of your personal information 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-making takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human intervention. We are allowed to use automated decision-making in 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 in 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, including 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 in 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 information with the individuals 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 information 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.

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 examining bodies
family, associates or representatives 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 prosecuting authorities
legal representatives, 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 individuals working with the police
police complaints authority
police forces
political organisations
press and the media
private investigators
professional advisers and consultants
professional bodies
providers of goods and services
regulatory bodies
religious organisations
security companies
service providers
students and pupils including 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 (including contractors and designated agents). The third-parties processing personal information about you are detailed in each service area’s privacy 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 instructions 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 information 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 instructions 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 will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal information 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 information 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 informed if your personal information changes during your working 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 information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing 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 processing (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 processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. 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 information to another party.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information 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 information 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.