Why we collect your personal information

Some of the reasons why the council needs to collect your personal information are:

  • Maintaining of the electoral register.
  • Protecting you or others by helping to detect, investigate, enforce and prevent crime and fraud.
  • Providing a service you or others have requested for.
  • Processing job applications, school places, housing applications and other requests you or others might make to us in our role as a local authority and employer.
  • Processing payments made to the council for council tax, debts, fines, rent and other services we offer.
  • Sometimes we are bound by law to collect personal information or support its collection because of legal reasons.
  • To provide healthcare services and safeguard the health and wellbeing, and environment of our residents.
  • Making payments to you and others for various welfare benefits, other benefits, salaries and compensation.
  • Investigating matters that concern or involve our residents.
  • Helping us plan to improve services
  • Ensuring that planning and building regulations are being followed.
  • When we act in a statutory role to issue licences, parking notices, provide education, social services and other statutory functions.
  • Studying trend and contributing to research that will benefit your health and wellbeing.
  • Improving your browsing experience when you use our website. Although we never use this information to identify you, it is still your personal information.

Whatever the reason is for collecting your personal information, we ensure there is an appropriate lawful basis in the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act, for doing so.

Lawful basis are legal paths in data protection law that regulate our approach and conduct when we collect your information.

Depending on the purpose for collecting your information, our lawful basis might be; consent, contract, where you have made the information public, when the law says we must, to protect you or others when you or others are not in a position to provide consent, if the information is important for the public good and this reason is supported by specific law, because of our role as a Local Authority responsible for employment, provision of health and social care, investigating your capacity to work, social security and protection, for reasons of public health, preventative or occupational medicine, preserving the record for the future, and to study patterns that will help us provide better services.