Your rights

At the time personal information is collected, an individual has a right to be informed about how that information will be used. This includes the purpose for the processing, the legal basis, recipients and categories of recipients of the information.

The right to access to your information

You have the right to ask for all the information we hold about you, this is called a Subject Access Request. When you send us a written request we must give you all the details we have about you - usually within one month – but we cannot share parts of your record that could include:

  • information about other people
  • things that could cause harm to you or someone else
  • things that would stop us preventing or detecting a crime.

Details on how to apply can be found here

The right to have your details corrected

You have a right to correct inaccurate personal information an organisation may hold about them. 

Right to be forgotten

In some cases, you can ask us to delete information, for example:

  • Where your personal information is no longer needed for the reason it was collected
  • Where you have removed your consent for us to use your information
  • Where there is no legal reason for the use of your information
  • Where deleting the information is needed  by law

You can ask us to stop processing your personal details for any Council service and we will do so if we can and it is allowed by law, but this may affect our ability to provide you with services.
Where your personal information has been shared with others, we’ll do what we can to make sure those organisations delete it.

The Right to be forgotten will not apply and we won’t be able to delete your information where:

  • to comply with a legal obligation
  • to exercise the right of freedom of expression and information
  • for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority
  • for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific research, historical research or statistical purposes where erasure is likely to render impossible or seriously impair the achievement of that processing; or
  • for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims

You can ask to limit what we use your personal data for

You have the right to ask us to limit what we use your personal information for where:

  • you have told us information is wrong
  • where we have no legal reason to use that information, but you do not want it totally deleted.

You have the right to ask us to stop using your personal information for any Council service, but this could affect how we deliver the service.
Where possible we will do what you ask, but we may have to keep some information because of legal reasons.

You can ask to have your information moved to another provider (data portability)

This allows individuals to obtain and reuse their personal data for their own purposes across different services. It allows them to move, copy or transfer personal data easily from one IT environment to another in a safe and secure way, without affecting its' usability. This will not apply to many Council services. 

Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling

You have the right to question decisions made about you by a computer, unless it’s required for any contract you have entered into, required by law, or you have given permission. You can ask to have any decisions made by computers explained to you.

You also have the right to object if you are being ‘profiled’. Profiling is where decisions are made about you based on certain things in your personal information, such as health conditions.

If and when we use your personal information to profile you to help deliver services, we will tell you.

Right to object

You have the right to object to your details being processed and to ask us to stop.

This right only applies in certain circumstances.

You have the absolute right to object if your details are being used for direct marketing purposes.

You can object if the processing is for:

  • a task carried out in the public interest
  • for official Council reasons
  • legitimate interests

In these circumstances the right to object is not absolute.

If we are processing data for scientific or historical research, or statistical purposes, the right to object is more limited.

For more detailed information about your right to object, please visit the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website.