Community wellbeing data - Privacy notice

Who the council is and what the council does

The council is a data controller under the Data Protection Legislation as the council collects and processes personal information about you in order to provide services and meet their statutory and regulatory obligations.

This notice explains why the council asks 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 the council needs your information and how the council uses it

The Community Wellbeing Team collects personal data for the following activities:

To respond to grant enquiries
To process grant applications
To process awards, payments and grant agreements
To monitor grant awards and ensure public money has been spent for the purpose allocated
To provide information about council grants and voluntary sector support and activities
To seek feedback (with consent) in order to monitor and improve our services

The council does not sell your personal information to anyone else.

What is the legal process for collecting and processing this data

We have to be accountable for the work we do and public funds we allocate to voluntary sector organisations. All funds must be spent for the purpose allocated and we need to ensure applications, agreements and monitoring relating to such funding is done fairly, in the public interest, and as the public would expect.

The legal basis for processing the data under the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 is Article 6(1)(e). We need it to perform a public task.

We use your information because we need it to provide you with a service as a local authority under the Local Government Finance Act 1992.

What type of information is collected from you

As part of your application, we collect:

Name
Organisation / Charity name
Position in organisation
Address of organisation
Email address
Telephone number and mobile number
Organisation bank details
Organisation financial details
Date of organisation was formed or constituted
Name to check for consent approval
Email address to check for consent approval
Photographs and images of projects
Other forms of evidence about the organisation or activity
Name of organisations / partners / councils involved in the project

We don’t not process any special category or criminal record types of personal data.

The above list is not exhaustive. The council will only ask for personal information that is appropriate to enable us to deliver our services. In some cases, you can refuse to provide your details if you deem a request to be inappropriate. However, you should note that this may impact on our ability to provide some services to you.

Fraud prevention and identity checks

If you apply for a grant or receive grant funding from the council, we may undertake checks for the purposes of preventing fraud and money laundering and to verify your identity. These checks require us to process personal data you have provided about you and your nominated representatives and data we have received from third parties.

Who your information may be shared with (internally and externally)

The council uses a range of organisations to either store personal information or to help deliver the services to you. Your information will be accessed by officers of the council in order to process your application.

The council will also use the information for the purpose of performing any of its statutory enforcement duties. It will make any disclosures required by law and may also share this information with other bodies responsible for detecting/preventing fraud or auditing/ administering public funds (see paragraph above).

Your information will not be disclosed to any other organisations, except where the council is required and allowed to by law. The council will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

How long the council keeps your information (retention period)

We will retain each application for a period of six years plus the current year, from when the last payment was made.

There are exceptions to these timeframes for specific types of grants:

Grants with legal agreements attached will be retained for the length stated within that legal agreement, which may be up to 10 years from the date of commencement.
Capital grants awarded for over £25,000 will be retained for 10 years, in accordance with the standard conditions.
COVID grants awarded to businesses and communities will be retained for 10 years in line with HMRC and BEIS requirements.
Unsuccessful applications will be retained for 6 months after decision was made.

How the council protects your information

All the information the council collects is stored securely on our IT system and manual filing systems. The council has strict procedures for the way this is done. Any and all information about you is treated as confidential and with respect. There are also clear rules and guidance about storing, recording and sharing information which staff receive training on.

The council will not transfer your personal data outside the EU without your consent.

The council has 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.

If you use your credit or debit card to make payments, the council passes your card details securely to our payment processing partner as part of the payment process. The council does this in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Security Standard, and doesn’t store the details on its website. The information you give to the council when using our online payment system will only be used for the recording of your payment.

The council 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 the following 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
To be told if the council have made a mistake whilst processing your data and the council will self-report breaches to the Commissioner.

How you can access, update or correct your information

The Data Protection law gives you the right to apply for a copy of information about yourself. This is called a ‘Subject Access Request'.

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. The council is 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 the council holds is inaccurate or out of date, please email us or write to us at:

Community Wellbeing Service
West Oxfordshire District Council
Council Offices
Witney, OX28 1NB
community.support@westoxon.gov.uk

Further information

If you would like to know more about how the council uses your information, or if for any reason you do not wish to have your information used in any of the ways described in this privacy notice, please contact the Data Protection Officer at data.protection@westoxon.gov.uk.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner: https://ico.org.uk

The council reserves the right to update this privacy notice from time to time by publishing a new version on our website.