Dudley Borough Council collects, holds and uses a full range of information, including personal information about residents, people it provides services to, and other people such as carers. We do this so we can better understand what you need and how we can effectively meet these needs.
The Council is accountable to its communities and has a duty to the people who we hold information about. We follow strict and distinct rules and have controls in place on how your personal information is used. We must treat your information responsibly, keep it safe and secure, and use it correctly and proportionately. This does include sharing the data you have provided when we are required to do this.
This document is a privacy notice. It explains and is organised around the following aspects: how and why we use any information we collect about you; how we may share your information; how long we keep your information; and your rights.
When you contact Dudley Welfare Rights Service (WRS), we will collect and use your personal data. We may also collect some special category information. A further explanation of this can be found in the Council’s main Privacy Notice
Information stored may include:
personal details
family, lifestyle and social circumstances
financial details
employment and education details
services provided
education and training details
visual images
WRS also processes sensitive information that may include:
physical or mental health details
racial or ethnic origin
political, religious or other beliefs of a similar nature
trade union membership
sexual life
genetic data
biometric data
offences, including alleged offences
criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences
We may hold information about:
members of the public
customers
people who live in the customer’s household
suppliers and services providers
advisers, consultants and other professional experts - complainants and enquirers
relatives, guardians and friends
offenders and suspected offenders
employees
WRS holds basic information (such as your name, address, date of birth) about everyone who has assistance with a benefit query. We may share this information with DWP, HMRC and other departments of Dudley MBC. We will hold more detailed information as required for your specific benefit query.
WRS sometimes needs information about people other than the person who has made an enquiry, in order to give accurate advice, and to work out entitlement to benefits. For example, where a person makes a claim for certain benefits, we need information about other people who live in the same household to work out how much the person will be paid. If we ask you for personal information, you need to give us accurate information
We will use this personal and special category data to comply with our legal obligations and duties, and where it is necessary to protect individuals from harm or injury.
The legal basis under UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) Article 6 (1) are: “(c) processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject; and (e) processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller. Additionally in some cases (a) the data subject has given consent to the processing and(d) processing is necessary in order to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person.”
The legal basis under UK GDPR Article 9 (2) for special category data are: “(c) processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person where the data subject is physically or legally incapable of giving consent; (g) processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, on the basis of Union or Member State law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject; and in some cases (a) the data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes.”
WRS may share information with and also receive information from other organisations such as:
government departments
departments of the Council
employers and potential employers
landlords
charitable and welfare
Why we may share information
We do this for a number of reasons, including to:
check the accuracy of information
help resolve queries, and act as intermediary with other relevant organisations
protect public funds
use for research or statistical purposes
We will only ever give information about you to someone outside WRS if the law allows us to.
Data protection principles
We will always comply with data protection law. This says that the personal information we hold about you must be:
used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way
collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes
relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes accurate and kept up to date
kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about kept securely
The information provided will be kept in accordance with the Council’s retention policy. Details of this are available by contacting information.governance@dudley.gov.uk
Your Information Rights
If we are processing your personal information using your consent, you can withdraw your consent at any time. If you want to remove your consent, please contact andy.dugmore@dudley.gov.uk
Your Information Rights are set out under the UK GDPR. Subject to some legal exceptions, you have the right:
• to ask for access to information about you that we hold • to have your personal data rectified, if it is inaccurate or incomplete • to request the deletion or removal of personal data where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing • to restrict our processing of your personal data (i.e. permitting its storage but no further processing) • to object to direct marketing (including profiling) and processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics • to have your data transferred to another Authority (data portability)
We have a Data Protection Officer who is a council staff member whose job it is to make sure we respect your rights and follow the law. Please contact , Lewis Bourne, Data Protection Officer, at information.governance@dudley.gov.uk
or by calling:
0300 555 2345 and asking to speak to the Data Protection Officer.
or by post: Dudley Borough Council, The Council House, Priory Road, Dudley , DY1 1HF.
You can also make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you are unhappy with how the council has handled your personal data. You can contact the ICO at: casework@ico.org.uk telephone 0303 123 1113, or post to Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
