Data Protection Privacy Notice (Fair Processing Notice)

This privacy notice explains how South Ribble Borough Council may use and share your personal information.  We will make every effort to keep your personal information safe, accurate, up to date and keep it for no longer than is necessary.

The Council is registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office (registration number Z496241X) because we collect and process personal data.  This collection and processing of personal data applies to both council employees and members of the public.

This Privacy Notice only covers South Ribble Borough Council. It does not cover links within this site to other externally operated websites. If you transfer to another site, please read the Privacy Notice or Statement relating to their information.

How South Ribble Borough Council may use your information

South Ribble Borough Council is committed to providing excellent public services. In order to do this, we collect, process, and hold personal data in order to provide public services. The information may be collected on paper, online forms, by telephone, email, CCTV or by members of our staff, or one of our partners.

We may collect and process your information for the following purposes:

• to deliver public services and other council functions
• to ensure we meet our legal obligations
• to provide the service you requested
• to monitor and improve performance in responding to your service request
• to obtain your opinion about our services
• to contact you by post, email or telephone
• to process financial transactions
• to prevent and detect fraud or crime
• to collect monies owed to the Council

We may share your information where we have any legal obligation to do so, or where we believe that by doing so we can provide you with a better standard of service.

We may process your information overseas using services that are hosted inside the European Economic Area, but only with data processing agreements that meet our obligations under the Data Protection Act.

Service or project specific privacy notices

Services using large amounts of personal or special categories of information will have their own privacy notice to tell people what information is being collected. These notices will map out how personal information flows through the service or project and how it is processed.

Building Control

Democratic Services

Elected Members

Environmental Health

Facilities Management and Caretaking

Housing Options

Human Resources

Information Services

Legal Services and Land Charges

Licensing Services

Neighbourhood Services

Planning and Enforcement

Revenues, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support 

Sanctuary Scheme

Strategic Housing

Retention Periods

We will only keep your information for as long as it is required.  The retention period is either dictated by law or by our information retention policies.  Once your information is no longer required it will be destroyed securely and confidentially.

Data Sharing with Third Parties

We may share your information with third parties where we have a legal obligation to do so, or where permitted under Data Protection legislation, or with a third party working on behalf of the Council to deliver services.

We will strive to ensure that any third party who we share personal data with has sufficient systems and procedures in place to prevent any loss of data.

We will not share your data with third parties for marketing or sales purposes, or for any commercial use without your prior express consent.

Detect and Prevent Fraud or Crime

South Ribble Borough Council is required by law to protect the public funds it administers. We may use any of the information you provide with other bodies in order to prevent and detect fraud or crime.  This includes the Cabinet Office, the Department for Works and Pensions, other local authorities, HM Revenues and Customs and the Police.

National Fraud Initiative and Data Matching

The National Fraud Initiative (NFI) is an exercise that matches electronic data within and between public and private sector bodies to prevent and detect fraud. Data matching involves comparing computer records held by one body against other computer records held by the same or another body to see how far they match. 

We participate in the Cabinet Office’s National Fraud Initiative and we are required to provide particular sets of data to the Minister for the Cabinet Office for matching for each exercise.

The use of data by the Cabinet Office in a data matching exercise is carried out with statutory authority under Part 6 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014.  It does not require the consent of the individuals concerned.

Data matching by the Cabinet Office is subject to a Code of Practice.

View further information about the National Fraud Initiative.

Your Rights

Your rights under the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

• The Right to be informed; you have the right to be informed how your data is processed, via Privacy Notices such as this.
• The Right of Access; you have the right to access the personal information we hold about you.
• The Right to Rectification; we endeavour to ensure that information we hold about you is correct and up to date.You may find that the information we hold is no longer accurate.Please contact the Council to have the information corrected.
• The Right to Erasure; you have the right to have your personal data erased and to prevent processing in specific circumstances:
• Where the data is no longer necessary in relation to the purpose for which it was originally collected
• When you withdraw consent for the data to be processed
• When you object to the processing of the data and there is no overriding legitimate interest for continuing the processing
• Your data was unlawfully processed
• Your information has to be erased in order to comply with a legal obligation

• However we may refuse to comply with your request for erasure for the following reasons:

  • To comply with a legal obligation for the performance of a public interest task or exercise of official authority
  • The exercise or defence of legal claims
  • To exercise the right of freedom of expression and information
  • For public health purposes in the public interest
  • Archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific interest, historical interest or statistical purposes
• The Right to Restrict Processing; you have the right to ask us to stop the processing of your personal data.However, this may cause delays or prevent us providing/delivering a service to you.
• The Right to Data Portability; you have the right to request your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine readable format for transfer to other providers.
• The Right to Object; you have the right to object to your personal data being processed at any time.
• Rights in Relation to Automated Decision Making Including Profiling; you have the right to insist on human intervention if a decision is based on the result of automated processing.

Telephone Calls

We will inform you if we record or monitor any telephone calls you make to us.  We do not record any financial card details if you make payments to us over the telephone.

Emails

If you email us we may keep a record of your contact, your email address, and the email.  For security reasons we will not include confidential information about you in any emails we may send to you, unless you consent to this.

Any email, including its content, may be monitored and used by South Ribble Borough Council for reasons of security and for monitoring internal compliance with council policy. This includes the content of emails and attachments. For example, inappropriate or offensive content would be blocked. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you write or forward is within the bounds of the law.

Website

General access to South Ribble Borough Council’s public web site (www.southribble.gov.uk) does not store or capture personal information.

During your use of our website, we automatically collect statistical data. This is used to identify how many people are accessing our website, which browsers they are using and which is page is most popular etc. The information cannot personally identify you and is only used to improve our online services.

This site contains links and references to other websites. Please be aware that this Privacy Policy does not apply to those websites and we encourage you to read the policy of every website that you visit.

 South Ribble Borough Council’s public website may request personal information when you:

• Complete an online form or survey
• Sign up for a self-serve account
• Apply for a job vacancy
• Make an online payment
• View and comment on Planning information

Cookies

We use cookies on our web site.  A cookie is a string of information that is sent by a web site and stored on your hard drive or temporarily in your computer’s memory.  The information collected is used for the administration of the server and to improve the service provided by the web site.  No personal information is collected this way. 

You can reject the use of cookies, but you may be asked for information again, e.g. to participate in a survey.  This statement only covers the council web sites maintained by us and does not cover other web sites linked from our site.

Information Security Incidents

Should you wish to report or suspect a security incident in relation to the personal information we hold about you please contact the Council’s Data Protection Officer.

Further Information

For further information about the use of your information or to request a copy of your personal information held by South Ribble Borough Council please contact:

Data Protection Officer
South Ribble Borough Council
Civic Centre, West Paddock, Leyland PR25 1DH
Telephone: 01772 625625
Email: dpo@southribble.gov.uk

Changes to this privacy notice

We will regularly review and update this privacy notice to comply with changes in Data Protection legislation and to reflect changes in our services.