Privacy Notice for Councillors

Below is a version of the privacy notice that all councillors sign.

As a representative of residents of my ward in the borough of Ashford, I am a Data Controller in my own right, accountable for the processing of personal information, for example, in connection with requests received from constituents. My contact details can be found on the find my councillor page.

Processing activity

In general terms, I may process personal information so that I can deal with your request for assistance or respond to your enquiry. I will only collect the personal data from you that I need in order to provide you with relevant information, services or support. Where I intend to process your personal information for a purpose other than that for which it was collected, I will provide you with details before doing so.

Information requirements

When you ask for my help and assistance I will need to collect some information from you.

This will generally include personal information such as your name, address and contact information together with details of your problem or concern.

Data Protection regulation treats some types of personal information as ‘special’ because the information requires more protection due to its sensitivity. This information consists of:

racial or ethnic origin
sexuality and sexual life
religious or philosophical beliefs
trade union membership
political opinions
genetic and bio-metric data
physical or mental health
criminal convictions and offences

I will only collect this type of information where it is of relevance to the request you are making.

The basis for the processing

The lawful basis under which I am permitted to process your personal information is that of a public interest task. Sensitive personal information is processed for reasons of substantial public interest.

Who will I share your information with

As a councillor, I may need to pass your personal details, and the circumstances of your query/assistance to council officers in order to allow the council to look into the issue.

In some cases, in the course of dealing with your request or query I may need to pass your personal data on to a third-party, such as other local authorities, government agencies, public bodies, health trusts etc. Any third parties with whom I may share your data are obliged to keep your details securely, and to only use your data for purposes already communicated to you.

I will not pass personal details of constituents who contact me to anyone else unless I am permitted to do so by law.

Retention period

I will process your personal data until I have resolved your issue and store electronic data and paper records for a period of 4 years. This is to allow me to build up case history and to return to your records when further matters arise. All information will be held securely and disposed of confidentially.

Your rights

You are entitled to the following rights:

Right of access – you have the right to request a copy of the information that I hold about you
Right of rectification – you have a right to correct data that I hold about you if it is inaccurate or incomplete
Right to be forgotten – in certain circumstances you can ask for the data I hold about you to be erased from my records
Right to restriction of processing – where certain conditions apply you have the right to ask me to restrict [quarantine] my processing of your data
Right of portability – in certain circumstances you have the right to have the data I hold about you transferred to another organisation
Right to object – you have the right to object to certain types of processing, such as direct marketing
Right to object to automated processing, including profiling – you have the right to ask for a decision made on wholly automated basis which legally affects you to be reviewed by a human being

For further details, please see Ashford Borough Council's data protection page.