A guide to how the council uses personal data.
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What is personal data?
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Sensitive personal data.
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Why do we need to collect and store personal data?
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How we use your information.
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Using your personal data.
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Joined-up services: sharing personal data
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Contact us
Under the Data Protection Act 1998, Personal Data is defined as data that identifies a living person and/or includes any expression of opinion about that person.
Personal data will therefore cover basic details such as name, address, telephone number, and Date of Birth, or notes and comments made about a person, and information held about that person in files.
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Certain data are classified as 'sensitive personal data' under the Data Protection Act, for example:
- Racial or ethnic origin
- Religious or other beliefs of a similar nature
- Physical or mental health or condition
- Sexual life
- Offences (including alleged offences)
Consent must usually be provided by the person for us to hold this sensitive data. Where we are asking you for sensitive personal data, we will always try and tell you why and how the information will be used.
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For some of our services, we need to collect personal data so we can get in touch, or provide the service. We always try to make sure the information we collect is correct and isn't an invasion of your privacy.
Where The Council does not directly provide the service, we may need to pass your personal data onto the people who provide the service. These providers are obliged to keep your details safe and secure, and use them only to fulfill your request. If we wish to pass your sensitive personal data onto a third party, we will usually only do so once we have obtained your consent, unless we are legally required to do so.
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The Council will collect, store and use the information you provide in a manner that is compatible with the Data Protection Act. We will try 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, but in most cases the Council will use its discretion to make sure that we do not keep records for longer than we need to.
We will always try and keep your personal data secure, whether it is held on paper or electronically. Our
privacy statement sets out our commitment to you when you access our services via the Internet.
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We will use the information you provide for the following purposes:
- Provision of council services.
- Regulatory, Licensing and Enforcement functions, which the Council is obliged to undertake.
- All financial transactions to and from the Council, including payments, grants and benefits. Where monies are due or outstanding the Council reserves the right to use all the available information (excluding Council Tax information) at its disposal to protect public funds.
- Where you have agreed for the purpose of consulting, informing and gauging your opinion about our products and services.
- To ensure the Council meets its statutory obligations, including those related to diversity and equal opportunity.
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The Council wants to be able to provide appropriate, timely and effective services - it is important to us that we co-ordinate what we do for you properly.
To do this, we share basic information such as name and address between services within the council. This is so that we can keep our information on you as up-to-date as possible and so that we can improve our services to you. For example, if you tell the Housing Team that you have moved, they will pass this information on to other parts of the council – such as Council Tax.
Even though our systems are joined-up, we ensure that staff within the council can only access the information they need to do their job. In addition, we have a duty to protect the public funds we administer and so may use the information we hold to prevent and detect fraud and any other legally required purposes.
Please remember though, we won't sell or give your information to any third party for marketing purposes unless we have asked your permission. We do have specific data sharing agreements in place with local agencies and sometimes the law requires that we may have to pass your details on to a third party – to prevent crime for example.
Read more about we share and why on the information sharing page.
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If you would like to know more or have any concerns about how your information is being processed please contact:
Information Governance
Information & Support
Leicester City Council
B3 New Walk Centre
Welford Place
Leicester
LE1 6ZG
Tel. 0116 252 7028
Fax: 0116 252 7616
Email:
data.protection@leicester.gov.uk
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