Democratic Services - Privacy Notice
Who the Council is and what the Council does
Cotswold District Council is a data controller under the Data Protection Legislation as the Council collects and processes personal information about you in order to provide services and meet their statutory and regulatory obligations.
The Council’s Democratic Services administer the processes surrounding the management of the Council’s meetings schedule and Elected Members.
This notice explains why the Council asks for your personal information, how that information will be used and how you can access your records.
Any questions regarding our privacy practices should be sent to:
Data Protection Officer (DPO)
Cotswold District Council
Council Offices, Cirencester, GL7 1PX
Email: data.protection@cotswold.gov.uk
Tel: 01993 861194
Why the Council needs your information and how the Council uses it
Under data protection legislation, we are permitted to use your information because we have a statutory duty to make a record of council meetings and decisions available to the public and to process petitions.
Public participation at Public meetings/recording of meetings
The majority of council meetings are transacted in public. Agendas and reports for all council and Democratic meetings are made available to the public.
Minutes and details of decisions are also published on our website once available. If you ask a question, or participate in a discussion, some information about you will be included in this record.
Some of our meetings are webcast. If you attend one of these meetings, you may be filmed/recorded.
Video Conferencing
In line with the Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020; meetings of the Local Authority will be held virtually (via Zoom). The public meetings of the Authority will be streamed live on Facebook.
Petitions
As a local authority, we have a duty to allow our Cotswold residents to bring to attention any concerns they may have within the District via the petition scheme. We collect information from you for the purpose of administering the petition scheme. You will be asked to provide your name, postcode and email address.
The Council does not sell your personal information to anyone else.
What is the legal process for collecting and processing this data
Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018, the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:
- UK GDPR Article 6.1(c) Legal obligation - as set out in the Local Government Act 1972 (s.100); Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012; Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009; Local Government Act 2000.
- UK GDPR Article 6 (1) (e) Public Task – we collect and lawfully process your personal data as it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in us.
What type of information is collected from you
Personal details, which may include:
- Name
- Address
- Other contact details – email address and telephone number
- Date of Birth
- National Insurance Number and Bank Account Details, for payment of expenses if an Elected Member
- Photograph, for ID purposes
In addition to the above, we collect the following information about Councillors:
- Register of Interest Forms including gifts and hospitality.
- Emergency contact details.
- Related Party Transaction Forms
The team hold the register of interests for town and parish councils.
Public participation at meetings/recording of meetings
Written minutes of meetings are accessible by all members of the public therefore, if you speak at a meeting, your name will be recorded in the minutes. Other information you provide us such as your postal or email address will not be shared with anyone.
At meetings that are webcast, if you speak at the meeting, you will be filmed. This webcast of the meeting is available on the Council's website for viewing by members of the public. If you are in attendance at a virtual meeting as a public participant (namely Planning Democratic) your name and picture will be captured on the video.
Petitions
Petitions are accessible by all members of the public therefore, if you have created a petition, your name will be available for all to see. Other information you provide us with to create the petition such as your postal and email address will not be shared with anyone.
We collect this information by:
- telephone, email, social media, writing or in person
Who your information may be shared with (internally and externally)
The majority of council meetings are held in public. Agendas and reports for council and Democratic meetings are published on the Council’s website five clear working days before the meeting.
Minutes and details of decisions are also published on the Council’s website once available. The audio recording of the meeting is published on the Council’s website. If you have asked a question, or participated in a discussion, some information about you will be included in these records.
The Openness of Local Government Regulations 2014, which apply to England, give rights to members of the press and public to use modern technology and communication methods such as filming, audio-recording, blogging and tweeting to report the proceedings of the meetings of the council.
If you create an e-petition on the Council’s website, you will be required to provide personal information so that we can contact you about your petition. The information will only be used for this purpose, although we may need to pass your details to the relevant department to enable them to respond to the issues you raise.
If you sign an e-petition on the Council’s website, you will be required to provide personal information about the signatories to it to enable use to verify that they are genuine.
Petitions and the Council’s responses are published on the Council’s website.
The Council will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.
How long the Council keeps your information (retention period)
We will retain your personal data in line with our corporate data retention procedures: https://www.cotswold.gov.uk/about-the-council/council-data-and-access-to-information/data-protection/
Copies of agendas and minutes are also kept as a permanent historical record.
Should your data be no longer needed it will be securely and confidentially destroyed or disposed of the data in line with retention schedules.
How the Council protects your Information
Your data is stored securely on our systems and accessed only by authorised officers using their own username and password created in line with pre-defined user credentials. Personal data is also held in electronic files on the council’s network drives. These are only accessible through personal logon credentials and access privileges to specific drives. Access to our council sites require a personal electronic pass to access staff only areas. The Council has strict procedures for the way this is done. Any and all information about you is treated as confidential and with respect. There are also clear rules and guidance about storing, recording and sharing information which staff receive training on.
If you use your credit or debit card to make payments, the Council passes your card details securely to our payment processing partner as part of the payment process. The Council does this in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Security Standard and does not store the details on its website. The information you give to the Council when using our online payment system will only be used for the recording of your payment
The Council will not transfer your personal data outside the EU without your consent.
The Council have implemented generally accepted standards of technology and operational security in order to protect personal data from loss, misuse or unauthorised alteration or destruction.
Please note however that where you are transmitting information to us over the internet this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure.
The Council will notify you promptly in the event of any breach of your personal data which might expose you to serious risk.
Your rights
You have the following rights under the Data Protection Legislations:
- To access your personal data
- To be provided with information about how your personal data is processed
- To have your personal data corrected
- To have your personal data erased in certain circumstances
- To object to or restrict how your personal data is processed
- To have your personal data transferred to yourself or to another business in certain circumstances
- To be told if the Council have made a mistake whilst processing your data and the Council will self-report breaches to the Commissioner.
How you can access, update or correct your information
The Data Protection law gives you the right to apply for a copy of information about yourself. This is called a ‘Subject Access Request'.
If you wish to see a copy of your records you should contact the Data Protection Officer. You are entitled to receive a copy of your records free of charge, within a month.
In certain circumstances access to your records may be limited, for example, if the records you have asked for contain information relating to another person.
The accuracy of your information is important to us to be able to provide relevant services more quickly. The Council is working to make our record keeping more efficient. In the meantime, if you change your address or email address, or if any of your circumstances change or any of the other information the Council holds is inaccurate or out of date, please email us or write to us at:
Democratic Services
Cotswold District Council
Council Offices, Cirencester, GL7 1PX
Email: Democratic@cotswold.gov.uk
Find out more: www.cotswold.gov.uk/about-the-council/councillors-and-committees/council-meetings-and-minutes/
Further information
If you would like to know more about how the Council uses your information, or if for any reason you do not wish to have your information used in any of the ways described in this privacy notice, please contact the Data Protection Officer at data.protection@cotswold.gov.uk
For more information about data protection please visit: www.cotswold.gov.uk/about-the-council/council-data-and-access-to-information/data-protection/
If you are concerned about the way the Council is handling your personal information you can contact the Information Commissioner (ICO): https://ico.org.uk
The Council reserve the right to update this privacy notice from time to time by publishing a new version on our website.