North Ayrshire Council Privacy Policy Statement
North Ayrshire Council gathers and processes information about you:
- so that services can be delivered effectively and efficiently
- to manage the employment relationship with our employees
Your privacy is important to us.
All employees who have access to your personal data, or are associated with the handling of that data, are obliged to comply with the Data Protection Act.
The following Privacy Statement details how we will look after your information.
What is personal data?
This is information about a living person that means we can work out who they are, such as:
- name
- address
- telephone number
- date of birth
- bank details
This can include:
- written letters
- emails
- photographs
- audio recordings
- video recordings
Some data is called special category which is more sensitive, and we have to look after it more carefully. This includes details of:
- ethnic origin
- religious beliefs
- sexual orientation
- trade union membership
- health data
- biometric (e.g. fingerprints, facial recognition and genetic data, such as DNA)
Why we collect, store and use data
As a local authority, the council has a lawful basis for the gathering and processing of information:
- where necessary for the delivery of services
- to ensure that we undertake our statutory functions and public task, when required to do so by law
- to safeguard public safety
- where there is a risk of harm or in emergency situations
Where we need your consent we will ask for it.
For some services, we need to use your personal data to get in touch with you and deliver services. We use your data to:
- provide council services and anything we must do by law
- undertake our regulatory, licensing and enforcement roles, which we have to do by law
- make payments, grants and benefits and spot fraud
- listen to your ideas about our services
- tell you about council services
Requesting personal information
When the council ask you for information we will;
- make sure you know why we need it and ask for only what is needed
- protect your personal information and make sure nobody has access to it who shouldn’t
- take proportionate steps to prevent the loss, misuse or alternation of your personal information
- inform you if we share it with any other organisations unless the law allows us to share it without consent
- ensure we do not keep your personal information for longer than is necessary
- not make your personal information available for commercial use without your permission
If personal data is subject to an automatic decision making process (by a computer), we will inform you of this in our individual service privacy notices.
Providing personal information
It is expected when providing personal information that you:
- provide us with accurate information
- Inform us as soon as possible if there are any changes to your personal information
This will ensure that your personal information is reliable, accurate and up to date.
Sharing your information
Within the council we may share your data between services so that:
- our information about you is up to date
- we can improve our services to you
We may need to appoint other organisations to carry out some activities on our behalf.
Where this happens, we will ensure adequate protection by ensuring contracts and sharing agreements are in place that define the security controls around the sharing of the information.
Data matching
North Ayrshire Council is required by law to protect the public funds it administers.
It may share information provided to it with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds, in order to prevent and detect fraud.
More information can be found on our National Fraud Initiative page.
Your information rights
You can find out more about your information rights on our data protection page.
If you have concerns about the processing of your personal data, by the council, you may contact the Data Protection Officer.
For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing, visit the Information Commissioner's website.
Changes to this privacy notice
We will keep our privacy notice under regular review. This notice was last updated on the 28 May 2018.