Privacy Notice | East Staffordshire Borough Council

Purpose of this privacy notice

As a local authority East Staffordshire Borough Council collects information from you in order to provide a wide range of services. Often you will have provided us the information in the first place because you have asked us for assistance. In many cases, this also means that we have to collect personal data and this document gives details of what information we collect, what we do with it, who it might be shared with, your rights in respect of your own information and how you can contact us.

When we collect information from you we are the Data Controller and we are committed to protecting the privacy of all individuals by ensuring lawful use of your personal data. We have in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, In addition we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and the Information Commissioner of a breach in line with our legal obligations.

We have appointed a Data Protection Officer who is the point of contact for everything relating to personal data and you can contact them via email at [email protected] . If you would prefer, you can also write to them at this address:

John Teasdale

Data Protection Officer

Legal Services

East Staffordshire Borough Council

Town Hall

Burton upon Trent

DE14 2EB

The personal data we collect about you

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). The different types of personal data we may collect about you - and the lawful basis for us doing so - are shown in this table:-

Service	Data Collected	Why is the data collected	Lawful Basis
Revenues and Benefits	Name, address, email address, date of birth, phone number, marital status, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, bank details, national insurance number, unique tax payer reference, VAT registration number, self assessment/partnership number.	To maintain the Council Tax and Business Rates records. To calculate entitlement to Housing Benefit and Business Rates Reduction.	Legal obligation Public task
Brewhouse and Arts Team	Name, address, phone number, email address, bank details	To maintain a database of those wishing to receive information on forthcoming events.	Contract Legitimate interests
Waste Management	Name, address, phone number, email address, date of birth, disability	For the purpose of providing assisted bin collection services and in order to provide additional wheelie bins.	Legal obligation Public task
Cemetery	Name, address	For the purpose of providing burials; keeping records of the ownership of grave plots; and maintaining grave plots	Contract
Elections	Name, address, date of birth, phone number, email address, marital status, ethnicity, gender, age, national insurance number	To complete the Register of Electors. To maintain and Election Staff database.	Legal obligation Public task
Licensing	Name, address, telephone number, email address, date of birth, (for taxi licensing purposes only: DBS certificate)	To facilitate applications to ensure applicants are suitable to be licensed.	Legal obligation Public task
Enforcement	Name, address, telephone number, email address, photographic image (CCTV footage)	To enable response to complaints and investigations.	Legal obligation Public task
Communities and Civil Enforcement	Name, address, telephone number, email address, bank details, photographic image (CCTV footage and /or body worn camera footage)	For the purpose of bringing enforcement action including issuing PCNs and taking legal action.	Legal obligation Public task
Income Management	Name, address, telephone number, email address, payment card details, bank account	In order to make and receive payments.	Contract
Democratic Services and Resilience Planning	Name address, telephone number, email address Webcasting - your personal image and your voice audio.	In order to respond to complaints received; to administer grants; to keep Borough and Parish Councillors’ Registers of Interests up to date. In order to provide a webcasting service. Utilised to increase transparency and encourage greater participation in how local decisions are made, your personal image and your voice audio will be filmed and broadcast live by the Council on its website. The webcast meeting will be also available on the Council's website for subsequent viewing.	Public Task Vital interests
Building Control	Name, address, phone number, email address	For the purposes of administering building regulations applications	Public task Contract
Environmental Health	Name, address, date of birth, phone number, email address, (for Disabled Facilities Grant applications only - marital status, gender, age, national insurance number, bank details)	In order to deal with complaints received; to discharge duties under the Food Act and related Regulations; to administer Disabled Facilities Grants; in order to discharge duties in connection with housing standards; licensing houses in multiple occupation; administering the Borough’s areas of selective licensing; for purposes in connection with the registration of boarding kennels and catteries; for purposes in connection with the licensing of caravan parks.	Public task Legal obligation
Planning Delivery	Name, address, phone number, email address	We collect information on applicants and also consultees. We need both in order to validate planning applications and also to validate consultation responses.	Legal obligation Public task Contract
Planning Policy	Name, address, phone number, email address	Details are held in order to allow those listed to be notified of planning policy consultations. For the purposes of administering the self-build and custom housebuilding register.	Legal obligation Public task
Local Land Charges	Name, address, phone number, email address	In order to deal with searches of the register	Public task
Housing and Homelessness	Name, address, date of birth, phone number, email address, ethnicity, gender, age, marital status, disability, bank details, national insurance number	To determine what duties are owed to the household under the Housing Act 1996 Part VII, and performing those duties.	Legal obligation Public task
Markets	Name, address, phone number, email address, date of birth, national insurance number	In connection with rental agreements for units or stalls at Burton Market Hall	Contract
Assets and Estates Management	Name, address, phone number, email address	For the purpose of managing the Council’s assets and estates function (for example entering into leases).	Contract
Mayor Support	Name, address, phone number, email address	For the purpose of Mayoral events and functions. The data is collected from those inviting the Mayor to attend events and functions and we retain a database of those the Mayor wishes to invite to events such as the annual charity ball.	Legitimate interests
Legal Services	Name, address, date of birth, phone number, email address	The data is collected in connection with the provision of legal services (for example advising client departments; conducting court cases; entering into agreements)	Legal obligation Public task
Economic Regeneration	Name, address, phone number, email address	The data is collected as part of an application process for the granting of business funding	Contract Public task

Personal data needed to meet a statutory or contractual requirement

We will notify you if we need your personal data because it is a statutory or a contractual requirement for us to have it. In addition we will let you know the consequences arising from a failure to give us that information.

Sharing your personal data

We do not sell any of your personal data to any third party and we will never do so.

We use data processors who are third parties who provide elements of services for us. We have contracts in place with our data processors. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it. They will not share your personal information with any organisation apart from us. They will hold it securely and retain it for the period we instruct.

The following is a non-exhaustive list giving examples of the categories of companies with whom we have contracts in place for the provision of services.

Revenues and Benefits

Third Party Organisations

Capita Software Services – software suppliers for Council Tax, Business Rates and Benefits databases. Empty homes data is also shared with the contractor engaged by the Council in an attempt to bring empty homes back into use – see Housing and Homelessness below.
Civica – software suppliers for electronic storage of Council Tax, Business Rates and Benefits documentation.
Equifax – software suppliers for the tracing of Council Tax, Business Rates and Housing Benefit overpayment debt absconders.
Department for Work and Pensions – provide daily updates of income details for Benefit/Reduction claimants. Investigate Welfare and Housing Benefit Fraud.
Northgate – provide remote assessor support to help process Benefit claims.
Jacobs - enforcement and collection agents. Collection of unpaid Council Tax & Business Rates debts and Housing Benefit overpayments.
Rundles – enforcement and collection agents. Collection of unpaid Council Tax & Business Rates debts and Housing Benefit overpayments.
Bristow & Sutor - enforcement and collection agents. Collection of unpaid Council Tax & Business Rates debts.
PHD Mail Limited – printing and mailing of all Council Tax, Business Rates, Housing Benefits & Council Tax Reduction bills, notices and invoices.
Valuation Office Agency – provide regular updates of changes to Council tax property bands and Business Rates Rateable Values, and determines the reasonable rent payable for individual Housing Benefit claims.
Child Protection Team – discuss Benefit claimant information where Child Protection Services are involved with the family.
Staffordshire County Council Building Resilient Families Team – discuss Benefit claimant information where BRFT are involved with the family.
Immigration Office – provide confirmation of immigration status for Benefit claimants.
Revival Home Improvement Agency – working alongside Disabled Facilities Grants team to encourage benefit claimants who are elderly and/or infirm to apply for home improvement grants.
Department for Business, Energy & Industry Strategy - provide updates for the purpose of the management of risk, avoidance and identification of potential fraud and debt recovery plus monitoring and evaluation purposes. The Government may share information for the purpose of counter fraud activity and debt recovery with other government departments, agencies and/or local authorities.
National Anti Fraud Network - provide information for the avoidance and identification of potential fraud

Arts Facilities

Third Party Organisations

Bulk mailing services on the Council’s behalf
Software to store, manage and send email communications
Software to store, manage and send SMS communications
Customer management systems

Housing and Homelessness

Third Party Organisations

Contract to provide an independent review of homelessness decisions. This involves transfer of the entire case file for a more detailed inspection of the case to ensure the decision is properly made.
The Council has a contract to provide assistance with loans to provide payment of deposits etc., which facilitates access to Private Rented Sector accommodation. This is known as the Council’s ‘New Tenancy Finance Scheme’ with assessment of suitability for loans and the administration of the same handled by Derbyshire Community Bank on our behalf. In order to perform this function Derbyshire Community Bank receive details of the applicant’s income and expenditure including bank statements, makeup of the household and the property they are seeking to secure.
Contract to provide homeless database / IT system. In order to retain all the data that has been input when the system is updated, the IT provider has some contact with individual client records.
Contract to provide a Housing Register, Trent and Dove collect and process all the data on our behalf.
There are a number of Housing Associations (HAs) that utilise the Housing Register which is operated on behalf of the Council by Trent & Dove. Upon an applicant to the register ‘matching’ for a social housing vacancy with another HA, the HA concerned would receive all the details the register holds about the applicant.
Arrangements with a variety of hotels on a spot purchasing arrangement, which would involve providing the name of the individual and any special requests.
Spot purchasing arrangements apply to the provision of storage, removals and repairs to self-contained temporary accommodation.
The Council has a contract in place aimed at bringing empty homes back into use. Information about empty homes drawn from Council Tax records enables the contractor to contact those liable for Council Tax and to seek to bring such properties back into use.

Sending your Personal Data to Countries Outside Europe

We do not transfer your personal data to third party processors outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

Automated Decision Making

We do not use automated decision making.

How Long We Will Keep Your Personal Data

We only retain your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for. This includes meeting any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. To help us decide the appropriate retention period for personal data, we take into account the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means. We also take into account the applicable legal requirements

Details of retention periods for different types of information are available in our Document Retention Policy which we can make available to you on request. Please contact the Data Protection Officer if you would like a copy.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see the section detailing your legal rights below for further information.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes. In that case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

Your Legal Rights

You have the right to:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of any new data you provide to us.

Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where this is no good reason for us to continue to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your data unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with legal obligations. Please note though, that we may not always be able to comply with your request and if that is the case we will notify you that that is the case and we will give you reasons why it is not possible to comply.

Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest of a third party (or on those very rare occasions where we are relying on our own legitimate interest) and there is something about your particular situation that makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. In some cases we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your legal rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:

(a) If you want us to establish the data’s accuracy

(b) Where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it

(c) Where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or

(d) You have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. This only applies where we have used the information to perform a contract with you or in those very rare instances where we have relied on consent as the lawful basis for processing your personal data. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.

Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw consent. Please note that the Council will only very rarely rely on consent as the lawful basis for processing your personal data.

You will not usually have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

We may need to request specific information form you to help us confirm your identity and to ensure that any personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

Your right to complain to the Information Commissioner

If you have any concerns arising from our responses to a request you have sent us or any other aspect of the way in which we process your personal data, than you can lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office at the following address:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF