Last updated: 5th June 2020

Information on how WellingtonTown Council processes personal data

Wellington Town Council is registered as a data controller under the Data Protection Act (ICO registration Z6751178) as it collects and processes personal information about you. This applies to Council staff, Councillors and members of the public.

It processes and holds your information in order to provide public services. This explains how the Council uses and shares your information. Information may be collected on a paper or online form, by telephone, email, CCTV or by a member of its staff, or one of its partners.

  • Why does the Council collect information about you?

The Town Council needs to collect and hold information about you, in order to:

  • deliver public services
  • confirm your identity to provide some services
  • contact you by post, email or telephone
  • understand your needs to provide the services that you request
  • understand what it can do for you and inform you of other relevant services and benefits
  • update your customer records
  • help it to build up a picture of how it is performing at delivering services to you and what services the people residing within the parish area require
  • process financial transactions
  • prevent and detect fraud and corruption in the use of public funds
  • obtain your opinion about its services
  • allow it to undertake statutory functions efficiently and effectively
  • make sure it meets its statutory obligations including those related to diversity and equalitiesWellingtonTown Council may not be able to provide you with a product or service unless it has enough information, or your permission to use that information.
  • How the Council uses your information

The Council will use the information you provide in a manner that conforms to the Data Protection Act 2018/General Data Protection Regulations. It will endeavour to keep your information accurate and up to date and not keep it for longer than is necessary. In some instances the law sets the length of time information has to be kept. For more information on our retention policy please contact the Clerk.

The Council will process your information for the following purposes:

  • for the service you requested, and to monitor and improve the council’s performance in responding to your request
  • to allow us to be able to communicate and provide services and benefits appropriate to your needs
  • to ensure that we meet our legal obligations
  • where necessary for the law enforcement functions
  • to prevent and detect fraud or crime
  • to process financial transactions including grants, payments and benefits involving the council, or where we are acting on behalf of other government bodies, e.g. Department for Work and Pensions
  • to collect monies owed to us
  • where necessary to protect individuals from harm or injury
  • to allow the statistical analysis of data so we can plan the provision of servicesThe Council will not pass any personal data on to third parties, other than those who either process information on this Council’s behalf, or because of a legal requirement, and it will only do so, where possible, after it has ensured that sufficient steps have been taken to protect the personal data by the recipient.The Council will not disclose any information that you provide in confidence to it, to anyone else without your permission, except in the few situations where disclosure is required by law, or where it has good reason to believe that failing to share the information would put someone else at risk. It may process your information overseas using web services that are hosted outside the European Economic Area, but only with data processing agreements that meet its obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018.
  • Information Sharing

The Town Council may need to pass your information to other people and organisations that provide the service. These providers are obliged to keep your details securely, and use them only to fulfil your request. If the Town Council wishes to pass your sensitive or confidential information onto a third party, it will only do so once it has obtained your consent, unless it is legally required/permitted to do so.

At no time will your information be passed to organisations external to this Council and its partners for marketing or sales purposes or for any commercial use without your prior express consent.

  • Improving Customer Records

The Town Council is working to make its record keeping more efficient and be able to provide relevant services more quickly across its partners in Telford.

  • Detect and prevent fraud and crime

Wellington Town Council is required by law to protect the public funds it administers. It may use any of the information you provide to it for the prevention and detection of fraud. It may also share this information with other bodies responsible for auditing, administering public funds, or where undertaking a public function, in order to prevent and detect fraud. This includes the Cabinet Office, the Department for Work and Pensions, other Local Authorities, HM Revenue and Customs and the Police.

Section 68 of the Serious Crime Act 2007 enables public authorities to disclose information for the purposes of preventing fraud, as a member of a specified anti-fraud organisation or otherwise in accordance with any arrangements made with such an organisation.

  • Emergency Response Management

Data matching may also be used to assist the Town Council in responding to emergencies or major accidents, by allowing the council, in conjunction with the emergency services, to identify individuals who may need additional support in the event of e.g. an emergency evacuation.

  • Emails

If you email this Council it may keep a record of your contact and your email address and the email for our record keeping of the transaction. For security reasons this Council willl not include any confidential information about you in any email it sends to you, unless you consent to this. The Town Council suggests that you keep the amount of confidential information you send to it via email to a minimum.

  • CCTV/Surveillance

The Town Council has CCTV systems in and around its offices, for the purposes of public and staff safety, crime prevention and detection. CCTV is also installed for the purposes of monitoring building security.

Images captured by CCTV will not be kept for longer than necessary. However, on occasions there may be a need to keep images for longer, for example where a crime is being investigated.

You have the right to ask for copies of CCTV images of yourself and be provided with a copy of the images.

The Town Council will only disclose images and audio to other authorised bodies who intend to use it for the purposes stated above and state a legal basis to share. Images and audio will not be released to the media for entertainment purposes or placed on the internet for public viewing.

The Town Council operates CCTV and discloses in accordance with the Codes of Practice issued by the Information Commissioner and the Home Office.

  • How this Council protects your information

The Council aims not to be intrusive and will not ask you irrelevant or unnecessary questions in relation to your personal data. The information you provide will be subject to rigorous measures and procedures to make sure it cannot be seen, accessed or disclosed to anyone who should not see it.

It has an Information Governance Framework that includes a Data Protection and Privacy Policy and a set of Information Security policies. These define our commitment and responsibilities to your privacy and cover a range of information and technology security areas. It provides training to staff who handle personal information and treat it as a disciplinary matter if they misuse or do not look after your personal information properly.

The Town Council will dispose of paper records or delete any electronic personal information in a secure way.

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  • Your Rights

As a data subject you have a number of rights in relation to the processing of your personal data.

The Data Protection Act 2018 / General Data Protection Regualtions provides individuals with a number of rights. For more information on these rights please access the ICO website.

The Information Commissioners Office has a current campaign on privacy, please visit the ICO website – Your Data Matters for further information.

If you are unhappy with how the Town Council has processed your personal data you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioners Office. You can do this via the ICO website or in writing to them.

  • Further Information

The Town Council will provide further information of what information is shared with other organisations on data collection forms, privacy notices and specific service sharing agreements.

If you would like to know more please contact the Clerk on 01952 567698, email wellingtontowncouncil@telford.gov.uk or write to the Town Council at:

WellingtonTown Council
Civic Offices
Larkin Way,
Tan Bank
Wellington
Shropshire
TF1 1LX

Alternatively you can contact the Town Councils Data Protection Officer (DPO) on 01952 383103 or email IG@telford.gov.uk

  • Changes to this Privacy Notice

Wellington Town Council will continually review and update this privacy notice to reflect changes in its services and feedback from service users as well as to comply with changes in the law/good practice. When such changes occur, it will revise the last updated date at the top of this notice.

Temporary Changes to Councils Privacy Notice due to response to Covid-19 (Coronavirus)

  1. Purpose

The purpose for which we are processing your personal data is to operate the Councils response to the coronavirus (Covid-19) public health epidemic. This will involve the dissemination and gathering of information.

While it is not possible to give an exhaustive list in the current fast developing circumstances, examples include communicating public health advice, dealing with enquiries, collecting and disclosing contact details of academics or medical professionals as well as details of suppliers or prospective suppliers.

  1. The data

We will process the following personal data if applicable:

    • your name
    • your home address
    • your email address
    • your phone number including landline and/or mobile phone numbers (if applicable)
    • other data you volunteer

We may also process other information where necessary and proportionate.

We may also process special category data regarding your health.

  1. Legal basis of processing

The legal bases for processing your personal data are:

    • it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest
    • it is necessary to protect the data subject’s vital interests, or the vital interests of another person

Our legal basis for processing any special category data is:

    • it is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest for the exercise of a function of a Minister of the Crown, or a government department.
  1. Recipients

Where necessary and proportionate, your personal data may be shared with other public bodies including government departments, government agencies and executive agencies.

  1. Retention

Relevant personal information is held only for the purposes of this privacy notice will not be held more than one year unless it needs to be retained in the public interest, for legal reasons or for historical record.

  1. Sources of information

Information may be obtained from other data controllers where necessary and proportionate.