Data Protection and Privacy Policy
In carrying out its role as the group responsible for steering the process of making the Burslem Neighbourhood Plans, we will be holding data electronically and we may also process some of this data to provide evidence in support of the Neighbourhood Plans.
For these reasons the forum is subject to Data Protection legislation, particularly in respect of any personal data it holds.
This page describes the data that the forum will hold, what it will do with the data, who has access to the data and in what form, and what you can ask us to do with any data that relates to you.
Data Use
The primary personal data that we store and use are email addresses to enable us to contact anyone who may wish to comment or contribute in the making of the Neighbourhood Plans. The Neighbourhood Plans are community plans and so community engagement is central to the task of making it. The forum will keep a list of email addresses that may also have associated names linked to them. We will not store postal addresses linked to names or email addresses.
Emails
All emails will be handled by the designated officers of the Neighbourhood forum and administrative support through which all email correspondence from will take place.
If you contact us by email we will reply (if required) and this and any subsequent emails will remain within the email filing system.
Comments made by email will be retained in the email filing system in their original form as evidence.
Other data storage
We store documents which we have written together with other documents relevant to the task on a secure email storage or password protected storage via the Burslem Regeneration Trust website. This will include lists of attendees at forum meetings.
The vast majority of these documents contain no personal data, most are available elsewhere in the public domain.
End of process
If the Neighbourhood Plans are approved by referendum then personal data will be removed at this point. If the Neighbourhood Plans are rejected then the community may seek to continue to progress in another form with a re-formed group in which case all data will become the responsibility of this new body for the duration of its existence and it will operate under the same conditions as described here unless and until it publishes a replacement operating statement.
The Legal Bits
Website, Cookies, Privacy Policy and Google Analytics
We do not use cookies on this website, however the underlying website construction (Word Press) does include a tool that allows us to see how many people visit the site, how they arrive, and what geographic region they probably visit from (eg UK, Russia,Canada, etc). This tool uses Google Analytics which requires us to put this notice on the website:
“We will not, and we will not assist or permit any third party to, pass information to Google that Google could use or recognise as personally identifiable information. We will have and abide by an appropriate Privacy Policy (This page) and will comply with all applicable laws, policies, and regulations relating to the collection of information from Visitors. We must post a Privacy Policy and that Privacy Policy must provide notice of our use of cookies that are used to collect data. We must disclose the use of Google Analytics, and how it collects and processes data. This can be done by displaying a prominent link to the site “How Google uses data when you use our partners’ sites or apps”.
This link is: www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/
Lawfulness of Processing Data
We process data for the purpose of exercising the public function of making a Neighbourhood Plan under the Localism Act 2011 and we believe it is necessary for the performance of this task which is being carried out in the public interest.
Consent
We do not need your explicit consent to process data neither do we assume you have given us consent, but we hope that you are content that we hold onto your email address if you contact us by email, or you provide us with data in any other form. However if you are not content you can ask us to tell you what personal data we hold about you and you may at any time request us to delete this permanently from our systems.
References
These statements are in accordance with the advice from the Information Commissioners Office and can be found by following the links below:
Information Commissioners Office - Self-assessment
The self-assessment form on the ICO website advised that we are under no requirement to register. The questions and answers are copied below for reference:
1. Do you use CCTV for the purposes of crime prevention?
No
2. Are you processing personal information?
Yes
3. Do you process the information electronically?
Yes
4. Is your organisation responsible for deciding how the information is processed?
Yes
5. Do you only process information for one of the following purposes?
No
6. Are you a not-for-profit organisation that qualifies for an exemption?
Yes
You are under no requirement to register
Some not-for-profit organisations are exempt and based on the information you have provided you do not have to register with the ICO.
However, it is important that your organisation adheres to the principles of the Data Protection Act (DPA) and understands best practice for managing information. To help ensure you are complying with the DPA, we have produced a range of training materials including practical toolkits, training videos and more.