Personal Information
We value your personal information. Sefton Council collects and processes personal information about its service users and its employees. Information is processed in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation. We will only gather the minimum information necessary and use it to provide you with an effective and joined-up service. It will be adequately protected and shared with other agencies only where the law permits. Finally, it will be destroyed as soon as it is no longer required.
The Council is made up of many different areas of service. For information about why a particular Service processes your personal data, what personal data are collected, the retention periods for that personal data, and who it will be shared with, please contact the relevant Service area for a copy of their ‘privacy notice’.
Sefton Council's Registration number is Z6451588. The entry on the Information Commissioner’s public register can be found at the following link:
https://ico.org.uk/esdwebpages/search
Sharing your personal information with other agencies or departments.
Sefton Council, along with all other Public Sector agencies, are committed to providing joined-up, cost-effective services to all our customers. To do this it is sometimes necessary to share your information with other departments, agencies or external service providers. This will only be done where the law permits, and will be done in compliance with the law and in accordance with guidance provided by the Information Commissioner's Office.
For more detailed information, visit the Information Commissioner's website.
Sharing without your knowledge
In certain rare and limited circumstances the Council is permitted to share your personal data without your knowledge. This is principally where the information is needed for:
- the prevention and detection of a crime including fraud.
- the apprehension or prosecution of offenders.
- the assessment or collection of tax or duty.
The Council will still refuse to release personal information if it feels the request is not compliant with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation, or if it determines the request is not fair or lawful.
The National Fraud Initiative (NFI)
Sefton Council are required to participate in the Audit Commission's National Fraud initiative and to share certain limited personal information with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds. This enables them to prevent and detect fraud.
The Council has a duty to protect the public funds it administers, and may use information held about you for lawful purposes, including and not limited to the prevention and detection of fraud, and the matching Council Tax data with Electoral Registration records.
The Council will also use the information for the purpose of performing any of its statutory enforcement duties. It will make any disclosures required by law and may also share this information with other bodies responsible for detecting/preventing fraud or auditing/administering public funds.
Access to personal information
You are entitled to request, from the Council, access to those Council records which hold personal information about you.
This entitlement is provided for under Article 15 of the General Data Protection Regulation ‘Right of access by the data subject’.
If we do hold information about you we will:
- Provide the purposes of the processing
- The categories of personal data concerned
- Give you a description of it
- Tell you why we are holding it
- Tell you who it could be disclosed to
- Let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form
In certain circumstances, you also have the right to:
- object to processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress,
- prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing,
- object to decisions being taken by automated means,
- in certain circumstances, have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed,
- right to data portability in certain circumstances
- The right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority (the Information Commissioner’s Office)
If you wish to make a request for any of the above please e-mail Ino.Information@sefton.gov.uk
The Council will provide a copy of the information free of charge. However, we can charge a ‘reasonable fee’ when a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, particularly if it is repetitive.
We may also charge a reasonable fee to comply with requests for further copies of the same information. The fee will be based on the administrative cost of providing the information.
If your request concerns your present or past experience as either a child known to Children’s Social Care or to Adult Social Care then please see Access to Personal Files information in Social Care.
Access to other Council information
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 enable the public to have access to unpublished information that the Council holds, subject to certain conditions and exemptions.
The Council is committed to the proactive dissemination of information, to be open and transparent and will publish information unless restricted by legislation. Like all other public sector organisations the Council is required to make the information it holds available unless subject to an exemption.
The Freedom of Information Act
The Freedom of Information Act aims to promote a culture of openness and accountability amongst public sector bodies, by giving the public rights of access to the information held by them. It is expected that these rights will facilitate better public understanding of how public authorities carry out their duties, why they make the decisions they do and how they spend public money.
The Sefton Council FOI Publication Scheme and Guide to Information will guide you to the information that we publish. It will show how to obtain it, and whether or not there is a charge involved. You can also find more information on the Freedom of Information Act and your rights.