This general Privacy Statement applies whenever you visit our website and whenever Winchester City Council collects your personal data – on-line, by letter, email, telephone and via our Customer Service Centre or in person.
Most of the time we collect personal information, such as your name and address so that we can contact you and provide a service to you. This is often because we have a contract with you to provide a service or because we are carrying out one of the many statutory functions (public tasks) that Councils carry out for you. In many cases, the law says that we can or must use your personal information and so we do not need your consent.
In this Privacy Statement we provide you with general information that applies to all the personal data that we collect from you. Also on this page you will find a list of service areas where we give you a more detailed Privacy Notice which explains why we need to collect and use your personal information, who we may share it with and how long we will keep it for.
Our aim is to use clear and plain language to explain to you the ways we use your personal data. We will tell you if we start to use your information in ways or for reasons that we haven’t done before.
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Winchester City Council, City Offices, Colebrook Street, Winchester, Hampshire SO23 9LJ is a data controller and is registered with the Information Commissioner under registration number: Z5730734.
The Council’s Data Protection Officer is Fiona Sutherland who can be contacted by phone on 01962 840222, in writing to the Council’s offices or by email to: legal@winchester.gov.uk
Personal information (or “data”) is any information about a living person. Although this is often information such as your name, address and contact details, it can also be information that is more sensitive and so needs more protection. This can include information about :
This is called “special category” data .
We will collect and use your personal data in accordance with data protection laws (the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018). We are required to keep your personal information accurate and up-to-date, not to collect more information about you than we need and not to keep your information for longer than necessary.
We also take suitable technical and organisational measures using IT and policies, procedures and staff training to ensure that we use your personal data properly and do not lose or disclose it inappropriately to others.
We can only use your personal information if the law allows us to. The main reasons are:
If we need to use your “special category” information, we must have an additional reason.
If we use your personal information because you have agreed, you can withdraw your consent by writing to the Data Protection Officer.
The main reason that we collect and use your information is because we need to deliver a service to you. We will always collect as little personal information as possible to enable us to do this.
We may share information within the council and sometimes with other organisations, such as the County Council, Police and government bodies. We will only do so where the law allows or requires that we share your personal data.
Your personal information may be processed by a third party, acting under a contract to provide services to the Council.
We do not sell your personal information to anybody else and unless you have agreed, we do not allow third parties to use your personal information for marketing purposes.
Winchester City Council is required by law to protect the public funds it administers. We may share information with other organisations responsible for auditing, or administering public funds, or where undertaking a public function, in order to prevent and detect fraud.
The Cabinet Office currently requires us to participate in a data matching exercise to assist in the prevention and detection of fraud. We are required to provide particular sets of data to the Cabinet Office for matching for each exercise, and these are set out in the Cabinet Office’s guidance, which can be found at: gov.uk/government/collections/national-fraud-initiative
In some circumstances the law gives you rights to control what and how your personal data is used. Not all apply – it will depend why we hold and use your information.
Where we are only allowed to hold your personal data because you have provided your consent to us, you have the right to withdraw consent.
If you wish to ask for information that we hold about you or exercise any of the other rights mentioned above, there is normally no charge. We have one month to deal with your request although this can be extended by a further two months if the request is complicated.
We will ask you for some information so we are sure of your identity before we can deal with a request. The procedures for submitting a request for your personal data or exercising any of the other rights are explained in more detail in our Data Protection and Privacy pages.
We only keep your information for as long as we need it and in accordance with the Council’s Retention Policy (pdf, 419kb).
If this document is not yet available, and you would like information about our Retention Policy and how long we keep your personal data for, please contact our Data Protection Officer.
The Council records all telephone calls made to our main switchboard (Customer Service Centre). This is to help with staff training, to maintain records of conversations, to help with the detection, investigation and prevention of crime. Calls to other numbers may be recorded – usually when transferred from our Customer Service Centre.
We will tell you if your call is being recorded.
If you have any queries or complaints about the way we handle your personal data, or if you wish to report a personal data breach to us, we would encourage you to contact the Council’s Data Protection Officer who will work with you to advise you and try to resolve any problems.
If you prefer to seek independent advice or we have been unable to resolve any issues satisfactorily, you can contact the Office of the Information Commissioner: www.ico.org.uk
