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North Ayrshire Council Privacy Policy Statement

North Ayrshire Council is a local authority established under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 and is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as a data controller (registration number Z4840237).

The council gathers and processes information about you for a range of purposes, including to ensure:

  • that services can be delivered effectively and efficiently and,
  • 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 2018.

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 must be treated with additional protective measures. This includes details of:

  • ethnic origin
  • religious beliefs
  • sexual orientation
  • trade union membership
  • health data
  • biometric (for example fingerprints, facial recognition and genetic data, such as DNA)

Why we collect, store and use data

As a local authority, the council must identify a lawful basis for the gathering and processing of information. There are various applicable lawful bases including:

  • 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

Use of CCTV in North Ayrshire Council

In certain areas, the Council uses closed circuit television (CCTV) to record images. This is undertaken in some Council owned premises, vehicles and through the use of body worn cameras. North Ayrshire Council will adhere to their obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulation when recording individuals. CCTV systems will only be implemented where there is a lawful basis to do so, and recordings will be held for no longer than is legally necessary.

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.

Service privacy notices

For more detail about how our services use your data and why, see:

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.

External websites

Where the council provides links to external websites, we are not responsible for the content of those external sites. You should read their privacy notices to learn how they deal with your information.

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 13 December 2023.

Contact Data Protection Officer

Email

dataprotectionofficer@north-ayrshire.gov.uk

Address

Data Protection Officer, North Ayrshire Council, Cunninghame House, Irvine, KA12 8EE

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