Councillors privacy notice

Councillors are elected to the local authority to represent their own community, so either live or work in the local area. They have a wide-ranging role with three main areas of responsibility;

• Ward representation
• Decision Making
• Community Leadership

Elected members are data controllers in their own right and must ensure that any personal information they hold / use in their office as an elected members is treated in line with GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.  Contact Details are included in the Councillors profile on the Council’s website

Why do we need your information and how do we use it?

• I will make use of personal data provided by you and council officers, to enable me to provide you will a detailed response to complaints and enquires.

• I can use personal case work material when I collect or are given personal data through communications with you, our residents.
• I will access, collect and use your personal data through my political campaigning and activation. Sometimes I will use political agents or political parties if I represent one.

In accordance with the data protection laws, I need a "legal basis" for collecting and using information about you. There are a variety of different legal bases for processing personal data which are set out in the data protection laws.

The legal bases on which I rely in order to use the information which I collect about you for the purposes set out in this notice will be:

• Public Task’ Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.
• Consent or explicit consent of the constituent making the request (or any other relevant persons where this is appropriate). We will not use your information for marketing or sales purposes without your prior explicit consent. 

• Public task

I hold personal data i.e. names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, national insurance numbers, physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural identity, biographical, professional, financial and social information.   I may also hold sensitive personal information (Special Category data) such as information regarding your race; ethnic origin; political opinions; religious beliefs; trade union membership; health; sex life; or sexual orientation.

Generally, the information I hold will have been provided to me by you, but I may also hold information provided by third parties, including council departments where this is relevant and necessary for the provision of my service e.g. from social workers, benefits service, planning department and enforcement agencies.

I will only ask for personal information that is appropriate to enable me to deliver my service. Processing of your personal information will be undertaken in accordance with the principles of the Data Protection legislation. Access to personal information is restricted to authorised individuals on a strictly need to know basis.

These are included in the relevant section of the Corporate Privacy Notice.

Briefly these are:

• To be informed of uses of personal data
• To ask for a copy of the data that Councillors hold on you
• To ask them to correct data about you that is wrong
• To ask them to delete data on you that is no longer needed
• To restrict processing in some circumstances
• To ask them to stop processing your data temporarily if you think it is wrong until they work out what is correct
• To ask them to let you take a copy of your data in a portable format to another organisation

If you only gave me your data with consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Please just get in touch with us

1. Council Officers and their agents

• 1.1 I may share information about you with council officers and their agents where appropriate.  Where this occurs our council officers and their agents shall be required to ensure that they adhere to the security requirements imposed by the data protection laws.
• 1.2 Our council officers and their agents will only be able to use the information for the purposes already communicated to you   

2. Other councillors

• 2.1 I may also be required to share your information with other councillors who are required to ensure that they adhere to the security requirements imposed by the data protection laws.

I will process your personal data until I have resolved your issue and store electronic data and paper records for a period of four years. This is to allow me to build up case history and to return to your records when further matters arise.

Where I have relied on your consent to use your data, I will store electronic data and paper records for a period of four years or until you remove your consent for me to use it.

Our Data Protection Officer

Our Data Protection Officer is Mark Hynes, you contact him by email at data.protectionofficer@walthamforest.gov.uk

Protecting your information

Please see the relevant section of the Corporate Privacy Notice.

Your information choice and rights

Please see the relevant section of the Corporate Privacy Notice.

Complaints and contact details

These are included in the relevant section of the Corporate Privacy Notice.

Information Commissioner’s Office

If we’re unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)