Data Protection and Privacy
Privacy Notice
In order to deliver services to the citizens and communities in Powys, it is necessary for the council to collect, gather, and process personal data about residents, staff and other individuals.
As a Data Controller, the council determines the purpose and methods for processing information and ensures safeguards over any personal and/or sensitive information it handles.
We collect information about you when you register with us or make requests for items or services. We sometimes also collect information you give us when you voluntarily complete customer surveys, provide feedback and participate in competitions.
When you visit our website, some information is automatically collected. For example, your computer's operating system, Internet Protocol (IP) address, access times, browser type and language, and/or the site you came from may be logged automatically. This information is not linked to your personal information.
Why we process your personal data
What type/classes of personal data do we handle?
Who information is processed about
Where do we obtain personal data from?
Sharing your personal information
How long we keep your information
How to make an enquiry or lodge a complaint
Information on how we use cookies
Who we are
Contact Details for the council:
Powys County Hall
Spa Road East
Llandrindod Wells
Powys
LD1 5LG
Email: customerservices@powys.gov.uk
Telephone: 01597 826000
Data Protection Officer:
The council's Data Protection Officer can be contacted by email at Information.Compliance@powys.gov.uk
Why we process your personal data
In order to deliver a range of public services to the citizens and communities of Powys, such as:
- maintaining our own accounts and records
- supporting and managing our employees
- promoting the services the Council provides
- marketing our local tourism
- carrying out health and public awareness campaigns
- managing our property
- providing leisure and cultural services
- provision of education
- carrying out surveys
- administering the assessment and collection of taxes and other revenue including benefits and grants
- licensing and regulatory activities
- prevention and detection of fraud and error
- the provision of social services
- crime prevention and prosecution offenders including the use of CCTV
- corporate administration and all activities we are required to carry out as a data controller and public authority
- undertaking research
- the provision of all commercial services including the administration and enforcement of parking regulations and restrictions
- the provision of all non-commercial activities including refuse collections from residential properties,
- internal financial support and corporate functions
- managing archived records for historical and research reasons
- intelligence gathering and data matching and fraud investigation under local and national fraud initiatives
- managing your personal Powys County Council account and subscriptions
- personalising your repeat visits to our web pages
We need access to and be able to use personal information about clients, customers, and staff. This information can be sensitive in nature so we put safeguards in place to ensure that:
- we only gather as much information as we need, and no more
- the information is accurate and up-to-date
- the information is only used for the purpose intended
- we keep the information for only as long as we need to
We will not disclose personal information to third parties for marketing purposes or use personal data in a way that may cause unwarranted detriment.
However there are circumstances where the council is legally required to disclose information:
- for the purpose of performing statutory enforcement duties
- disclosures required by law
- for the purposes of detecting/preventing fraud
- auditing/administering public funds
Information is processed by the council in the UK. However, we will inform you in our 'Privacy Notices' of any instance where this may not be the case.
The council will only share your information where it is required to do so, such as, where services are delivered jointly with other organisations. We will tell you who these other organisations are when we gather your information.
What type/classes of personal data do we handle?
In order to carry out our functions Powys County Council may obtain, use and disclose personal data including the following:
- Personal details (including such things as your Name, Address, Date of Birth, National Insurance Number)
- Family details
- Lifestyle and social circumstances
- Goods and services
- Financial details
- Employment and education details
- Housing needs
- Visual images, personal appearance and behaviour
- Licences or permits held
- Student and pupil records
- Business activities
- Case file information
- Physical or mental health details
- Racial or ethnic origin
- Trade union membership
- Political affiliation
- Political opinions
- Offences (including alleged offences)
- Religious or other beliefs of a similar nature
- Criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences.
Powys County Council will only use appropriate personal data necessary to fulfil a particular purpose or purposes. Personal data could be information which is held on a computer or its systems, in a paper record i.e. a file, as images, but it can also include other types of electronically held information e.g. CCTV images.
Who information is processed about
In order to carry out the purposes described above in why we process your personal data Powys County Council may obtain, use and disclose personal data about the following:
- Customers
- Suppliers
- Staff, persons contracted to provide a service
- Claimants
- Complainants, enquiries or their representatives
- Professional advisors and consultants
- Students and pupils
- Carers or representatives
- Landlords
- Recipients of benefits
- Witnesses
- Offenders and suspected offenders
- Licence and permit holders
- Traders and others subject to inspection
- People captured by CCTV images
- Representatives of other organisations
- Businesses
Where do we obtain personal data from?
In order to carry out the purposes described above Powys County Council may obtain personal data from a wide variety of sources, including the following:
- Law enforcement agencies
- HM Revenue and Customs
- Licensing authorities
- Legal representatives
- Prosecuting authorities
- Defence solicitors
- Courts
- Prisons
- Security companies
- Voluntary sector organisations
- Approved organisations and people working with the Council
- Auditors
- Central government, governmental agencies and departments
- Emergency services
- Individuals themselves
- Relatives, guardians or other persons associated with the individual
- Current, past or prospective employers of the individual
- Healthcare, social and welfare advisors or practitioners
- Education, training establishments and examining bodies
- Business associates and other professional advisors
- Employees and agents of BGCBC
- Suppliers, providers of goods or services
- Persons making an enquiry or complaint
- Financial organisations and advisors
- Credit reference agencies
- Loss Adjusters
- External claims handlers
- Witnesses
- Medical consultants and GPs
- Survey and research organisations
- Trade, employer associations and professional bodies
- Local government
- Voluntary and charitable organisations
- Ombudsman and regulatory authorities
- The media
- Data Processors working on behalf of BGCBC
- Probation Service
- Public Protection Multi Agency Sharing Hubs
- Information openly available on the internet
- Body Worn Cameras worn by officers
- Other departments within the Council
Powys County Council may also obtain personal data from other sources such as its own CCTV systems, or correspondence.
Sharing your personal information
Where information is shared with other organisations or processed on our behalf, we will ensure adequate protection by ensuring contracts and sharing agreements are in place. These will define the minimum amount of data to be shared, how your information is to be used and will enforce security controls to protect your information.
All council officers are required to undertake relevant training to ensure that personal data is processed in accordance with the principle of data protection legislation.
How long we keep your information
We will only keep your information for the minimum period necessary. After this time, information is deleted/destroyed in accordance with council approved retention schedules. Please see our 'retention schedule' which explains how long we keep information for see the retention schedule
Retention Schedule
A retention schedule is a list of records that need to be retained by the Council for a designated period of time. The Retention Schedule shows the title of each record, a time period for which records are to be retained, and identified the reason (legislative, regulatory and / or operational) on which retention is based.
View the Corporate Retention Schedule here
Your rights
Subject Access Request - you are able to make a request to see and be provided with a copy of information about you that is being used by Powys County Council. This includes why information is being held and what sorts of decisions are being made using that information.
To make this request please fill in a Subject Access Request Form (PDF) [100KB]
Right to be informed - you have the right to be supplied with information explaining why and how we use your information. These notices are called Privacy Notices.
Right of rectification - you are entitled to have personal information put right or completed if you feel it inaccurate or not complete.
Right to be forgotten - you have the right to request that personal information about you is erased where we have no compelling reason to continue using it.
Right to block or restrict - you are able to ask that we stop using your personal information for certain reasons and in certain ways.
Right to portability - Dependent upon the reasons and the way in which we use your information you may be entitled to obtain and reuse your information, to move your information from one IT system to another. This applies only when its information you gave us, you consented to us using it, or we are using it because of a contract, and the use of information is undertaken by a computer.
Right to object - you are able to object to us using your information in some cases, such as direct marketing.
Rights related to automated decision-making including profiling - where you are able to request human intervention in the decision-making process.
How to make an enquiry or lodge a complaint
Depending on why we need to process your information, you will have certain rights over how it's used. These will be detailed in the Privacy Notices, provided.
The council has a legal basis for gathering and processing of information necessary for the delivery of services. You have the right to request that the council stop or restrict using your personal data in relation to any council service. However, this may cause delays or prevent us delivering a service to you. Where possible, we will seek to comply with such requests, but this may not be possible where the council is required to do so by law, to safeguard public safety, where there is a risk of harm and/or in emergency situations.
Please submit an enquiry to us if you would like to:
- View your information, please submit a request (Subject Access Request)
- Verify, correct or update your information
- Understand how we have arrived at a decision about you
- If you have a concern, complaint, objection or request a restriction on how we process your data
- We will endeavour to respond to all enquiries within 28 days of their submission.
Contact details for enquiries:
Data Protection Officer:
The council's Data Protection Officer can be contacted by email at Information.Compliance@powys.gov.uk and by phone at 01597 826400
For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing issues, you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at:
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number
Alternatively, visit ico.org.uk or email casework@ico.org.uk.
Protecting your personal data?
Powys County Council takes the security of all personal data under our control very seriously. We will ensure that appropriate policy, training, technical and procedural measures are in place. This includes audit and integrity monitoring, to protect our manual and electronic information systems from data loss and misuse. We will only permit access to them when there is a legitimate reason to do so, and then under strict guidelines as to what use may be made of any personal data contained within them. These procedures are continuously managed and enhanced to ensure up-to-date security.
Information on how we use cookies
When you use this website, some data (cookies) will be stored on your computer.
These cookies are essential for us to provide a good web service to you. None are used for marketing purposes, and no personal information is stored in (or accessed by) our cookies. They just help our site work.
We use them on this website to improve services for you by, for example:
- making sure your device is recognised so that you don't have to give the same information several times during one task
- recognising that you have already given a username and password so you don't need to re-enter it into every web page you go to
- measuring how many people are using our website, so we can make sure that we can meet the demand
- understanding how people access the information on our site via search engines, so we can tailor it to make information easier to find.
Cookies on the powys.gov.uk website from other companies and social networking websites
During your visit to the site you may notice some cookies that are not related to powys.gov.uk. This happens when you visit a page with content embedded from a third party (for example YouTube videos) or use some of the links to social networking sites (e.g. Share This). These websites may place cookies on your computer.
Powys County Council does not control how a third party uses their cookies. You should check these third party websites' privacy policies for more information about their cookies if you are concerned about this.
Powys County Council strongly recommends that you do not block any cookies from powys.gov.uk websites, as these are needed for our sites to work well for you.
If you still want to control which cookies you accept, read advice about how to control cookies on your computer (this advice is not endorsed by Powys County Council)
See a list of Cookies used on this website
Other websites
Our website contains links to other websites. This privacy policy only applies to this website so when you link to other websites you should read their own privacy policies.
Changes to our privacy policy
We keep our privacy policy under regular review and we will place any updates on this web page.
This privacy policy was last updated on 14th May 2018.
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