Committee Services - Privacy notice
Who we are and what we do
The council’s Committee Services administer the processes surrounding the management of the council’s meetings schedule and Elected Members.
This notice explains why we ask for your personal information, how that information will be used and how you can access your records.
Any questions regarding our privacy practices should be sent to:
Data Protection Officer (DPO)
West Oxfordshire District Council
Council Offices, Witney, OX28 1NB
Email: data.protection@westoxon.gov.uk
Tel: 01993 861194
Why we need your information and how we use it
We use information about Elected Members, members of the public and businesses to enable us to carry out specific functions for which we are responsible and to provide you with a statutory service. We publish a record of all council decisions and meetings, as well as any background information and reports that inform decisions.
We keep records about members of the public (both residents and people living outside the district), businesses, council employees and elected members. These may be written down (manual records), or kept on a computer (electronic records).
We are required to process your information under the following legislation, the list is not exhaustive:
- The Local Government Act 1972
What type of information is collected from you
The information we collect and process includes
- Basic details about you, for example: name, address, date of birth and contact details
- National Insurance Number and Bank Account Details, for payment of expenses if an Elected Member
- Photograph, for ID purposes
Who your information may be shared with (internally and externally)
Includes:
- The general public as:
- the majority of council meetings are transacted in public
- Agendas and reports for all council and committee meetings are made available to the public in advance of the meeting
- Minutes and details of decisions are also published on our website once available
- When the law requires us to pass on information under special circumstances,
- Crime prevention or the detection of fraud as part of the National Fraud Initiative
How long we keep your information (retention period)
Your details will be kept in line with statutory retention periods.
Anyone who receives information from us has a legal duty to keep it confidential
We are required by law to report certain information to appropriate authorities, for example:
- where a formal court order has been issued.
- to law enforcement agencies for the prevention or detection of a crime
Additionally we will provide information to other council Services to enable them to fulfil their duties, such as the payment of expenses.
How we protect your Information
We will not transfer your personal data outside the EU without your consent.
We have implemented generally accepted standards of technology and operational security in order to protect personal data from loss, misuse, or unauthorised alteration or destruction.
Please note however that where you are transmitting information to us over the internet this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure.
For any payments which we take from you online we will use a recognised online secure payment system.
We will notify you promptly in the event of any breach of your personal data which might expose you to serious risk.
Your rights
You have rights under the Data Protection Legislations:
- to access your personal data
- to be provided with information about how your personal data is processed
- to have your personal data corrected
- to have your personal data erased in certain circumstances
- to object to or restrict how your personal data is processed
- to have your personal data transferred to yourself or to another business in certain circumstances
- You have the right to be told if we have made a mistake whilst processing your data and we will self report breaches to the Commissioner
How you can access, update or correct your information
The Data Protection Legislation allows you to find out what information is held about you, on paper and computer records. This is known as ‘right of subject access’ and applies to your Committee Services records along with all other personal records. For more information, see our data protection page.
If you wish to see a copy of your records you should contact the Data Protection Officer. You are entitled to receive a copy of your records free of charge, within a month.
In certain circumstances access to your records may be limited, for example, if the records you have asked for contain information relating to another person.
The accuracy of your information is important to us to be able to provide relevant services more quickly. We are working to make our record keeping more efficient. In the meantime, if you change your address or email address, or if any of your circumstances change or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date please email us or write to us at:
Committee Services
West Oxfordshire District Council
Council Offices, Witney, OX28 1NB
Contact us
Further information
If you would like to know more about how we use your information or if for any reason you do not wish to have your information used, email data.protection@westoxon.gov.uk.
You can also complain to the Information Commissioner.
We reserve the right to update this privacy notice from time to time by publishing a new version here on our website.