This page explains how your information will be held about you and processed by the Research and Consultation Team. You can also find out about the General Data Protection Regulations and Data Protection Act 2018.
This page contains information about:
- who we are
- why we collect your personal information
- the legal basis for using your information
- who we may share your information with
- how you can access the information we hold about you
- how long we keep information about you
- further information and Data Protection Officer
Who we are
We will be the Data Controller for the personal information you provide. Personal information can be anything that identifies and relates to a living person. This could be your name and contact details.
Why we collect your personal information
Diversity monitoring helps to inform us of the needs of our diverse communities and therefore improve the way we design and deliver our services for local residents which is why we ask you personal questions about yourself. The information you give us in response to surveys will form part of a final report but you will never be personally identified. The information will be used for statistical and monitoring purposes. It will not be used to identify individuals.
We are not permitted to collect information we do not need or will not use. This page covers information you have provided direct to the Council and information which has been shared with us by other organisations.
If we don’t need your personal information we will either keep your details anonymous or we won’t ask you for it. If we use your personal information for research or analysis, we will always keep your details anonymous or use a fake name.
We don’t sell your personal information to anyone else.
The Research and Consultation Team seek to abide by the MRS Code of Conduct as this represents best practice for our field of work. Find out more about the code of conduct and how it applies to our work.
The legal basis for using your information
According to the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, we must have a reason to collect and use your information.
This will be to:
- deliver services and support you
- enable us to manage the services we provide
- train and manage our workers who deliver those services
- investigate any worries or complaints you may have about our goods or services
- check the quality of our goods and services
- help with research and planning of new services.
There are a number of legal reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information. For this service:
Public task: the processing is necessary for us to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law.
Our service also needs to use sensitive personal data also called "special category data" which requires more protection to keep it safe. This is often information you would not want to be widely known and is very personal to you. It includes:
- sexuality or sexual heath
- religious or spiritual or philosophical beliefs
- ethnicity
- physical or mental health.
We will take extra care of this data. The legal reason for us to collect and use this personal information is it is necessary for archiving, research, or statistical purposes.
Who we may share your information with
We use a range of organisations to either store personal information or to help deliver our services to you. Sometimes we have a legal duty to provide your personal information to other organisations, for example the court service or HMRC.
We occasionally work with research companies who analyse data and produce reports on our behalf. They are appointed and expected to comply with the Data Protection Act 2018. Your data will be held securely by them and will only be used for analysing and producing a report for the consultation or research you have taken part in.
Our survey data is hosted by Snap Surveys on behalf of BCP Council. The data is stored securely as specified in the Snap Surveys privacy policy . All information you provide is treated in confidence and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). The information will be used for statistical and monitoring purposes. It will not be used to identify individuals.
Accessing the information we hold about you
You have the right to request, in writing, details of the information that is held about you and also the right to access a copy of the information. This may be by the Council providing copies of documents or by inviting you to view the records at one of its offices, if appropriate. Please see our webpage for further information about how to make a subject access request.
BCP Council will not charge a fee to access your information. Sometimes there may be information that we are not allowed to show you, such as:
- legal information or advice
- crime prevention and detection records
- information that we believe may be harmful to you and your well-being
- details about or provided by other people – this is called third party information (e.g. information from the Police or Department for Work & Pensions).
You may also ask us to:
- stop processing your information if this causes or might cause damage or distress
- stop processing your information for direct marketing
- make decisions about you using your information by automated means (e.g. using computers to decide on an entitlement)
- amend any of your data which you feel is inaccurate. You can also ask for information to be blocked, erased or destroyed.
- transfer your information electronically to another service provider.
- consider a claim for compensation for any damages caused by a breach of the Data Protection regulations.
If you give consent for us to use your information, you may withdraw this at any time. However, this may affect our ability to continue to provide you with a service.
How long we keep information about you
We will retain this information for 5 years (significant policy development) or 1 year (minor policy development) after consultation closes as stated in our retention schedule.
Further information
If you have a concern about how we are using your information, we would ask you to contact us in the first instance using the address below:
researchandconsultation@bcpcouncil.gov.uk
Data Protection Officer
The Data Protection Officer role for BCP Council is held by the:
Team Leader
Contracts, Commercial and Information Governance.
If you have any queries or concerns about how your personal information please contact us using our general enquiries form first, or by writing to or visiting us at:
information.governance@bcpcouncil.gov.uk
Information Commissioner
For further information about Information Rights legislation, please contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk.