Data Protection policies and information
Cheshire West and Chester Council depends on information to carry out its duties and provide services to its citizens and customers. A lot of this information is personal – information about you. The Data Protection Act 1998 sets the legal framework for how we collect, handle and process personal data, and gives you the right to find out what information we hold about you, to check they are correct and to require us to amend them if necessary.
The Information Commissioner is the independent authority established by the Government which is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Act
What do we have to do?
In handling your information, the Council has to follow the 8 Data Protection principles. These are:
- Processing must be fair and lawful
- The information we obtain must be for specific and lawful purposes;
- The information must be adequate, relevant and not excessive for those purposes;
- The information must be accurate and kept up to date;
- We must not hold the information for longer than is necessary;
- We must process your information in accordance with your rights under the Act;
- The information must be subject to the appropriate technical and organisational security measures to prevent loss, destruction or unlawful use;
- We must not transfer the information outside the European Union unless the country in question provides adequate security.
What are your rights?
You have the right to
- Be told whether we are processing personal data about you
- See the information which we hold about you
- Prevent processing which will cause you damage or distress
- Prevent processing for marketing purposes
- Require amendment or correction of information which is wrong
- If you want to find out what information we hold you need to make a Subject Access Request
How to find out what personal information we have about you
You have the right under the Act to find out what personal information we hold about you, and we are required to tell you unless it is subject to any of a limited number of exemptions. Please see separate guidance for access to social care records.
Please note that requests for school records should made to the individual school, NOT to the Council.
To make a request you need to write to us by post: there is a form available to download (PDF 11kb) which sets out the information which we require to deal with your request. It is not mandatory to use it, but if you do not you will still need to supply the information requested. This is:
- Full name and date of birth
- Address (and previous addresses in some cases)
- Details of Cheshire West and Chester Council (or predecessor authorities’) services with which you have had dealings (and when)
- any additional information such as names of officers, reference or case numbers which may help us to locate your data
We will also need proof of your identity; there is also normally a fee of £10
Within 40 calendar days of receiving the proof of identity and fee, we will supply you with the information requested or explain why we cannot.
If you are not satisfied with how your request is handled you should write in the first instance to the Data Protection Officer.
You also have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner.
Further information
If you want further information about how Cheshire West and Chester Council carries out its duties under the Act, please contact the Data Protection Officer:
Dermot Lacey
Head of ICT and Customer Services
HQ
Nicholas Street
Chester CH1 2NP
Tel: 01244 9 77827
For information about Data Protection in general contact the
Information
Commissioner’s Office.
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113
Fax: 01625 5 24510
Email: casework@ico.gsi.gov.uk