Data protection

The Council has a legal responsibility to ensure that its records are maintained and that you are able to access the personal information that is held about you in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

The Council trains all staff involved in the collection, processing and disclosure of personal information so that they are aware of their duty and responsibility to follow the principles of the Act.

The Council will respect people's individual rights in accordance with the Data Protection Act.

Notification

• The council is registered with the Information Commissioner for the processing of personal data and the registration number for the council is Z7262171.
• There is a separate registration for the Electoral Registration Officer number Z5917276.

Data protection principles

There are eight data protection principles in the Act to which the Council must comply (data means information about living people):

• data must be fairly and lawfully processed
• data can only be processed for limited purpose
• data must be adequate, relevant and not excessive
• data must be accurate
• data must not be kept longer than necessary
• data must be processed in accordance with the person’s rights
• data must be kept securely
• data must not be transferred to a country outside the European Economic area unless there is a specific agreement

Individual rights

The Data Protection Act gives you the following rights:

• right to access personal information held about you or your children (see personal information page)
• right to challenge information held that could cause you personal damage or distress
• right to prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing i.e. any form of advertising from the Council
• rights in relation to automated decision taking - you are entitled to written notice of how the decision was made
• right to claim compensation if you suffer damage or distress as a result of non-compliance with the Act
• right to take action to rectify, block, erase or destroy inaccurate data
• right to make a request to the Information Commissioner for an assessment to be made as to whether any provision of the Act has been contravened

For further information please contact the Corporate Information Manager.

Documents

To view these documents you might need to download some software. Visit our downloads page for more information.

Data protection policy - policy and guidance on data protection. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 181KB

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