Legal Services - Privacy Notice

Who we are and what we do

West Oxfordshire District Council provides a range of internal Legal services to assist us in meeting our legal obligations.

The services provided internally by Legal Services are in the following areas:

Provision of legal advice
Conducting or defending legal action on behalf of the Council
Managing land and land registration enquiries

The Council is a data controller under the Data Protection Legislation as we collect and process personal information about you in order to provide services and meet our statutory and regulatory obligations.

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
Telephone: 01993 861194

What is the legal process for collecting and processing this data

Your information will be used as evidence during the investigation and handling of your case. The legal basis for processing your data is Article 6.1(c) of the General Data Protection Regulations, where there is a Statutory Duty upon the Council to do so, otherwise we will process your data under Article 6.1(e) of the General Data Protection Regulations, in the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of the Council's official authority.

This means that the Council has either a legal duty or a legal power to process information for these purposes.

The legal power is set out under Common Law and within the Local Government Act and Localism Act. Legal Duties are laid out within, but are not limited to; the Housing Acts, Food Safety Act, Environmental Protection Act, R.I.P.A, Crime and Disorder Act, Anti Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act, Town and Country Planning Act and Licensing Act or within Acts which are detailed within the individual service’s Privacy Notices.

What type of information is collected from you

The personal information we hold about you about the provision of internal Legal Services is collected in a variety of ways. This may include names, addresses, date of birth, financial and social information as well as special category data. Special category data includes information about your ethnic origin, political opinions or religious beliefs.

We will access information stored in other Council systems, collect information from you in paper and online forms, by telephone, email, CCTV and in conversation with a member of our staff. We may also collect this information from other third parties where it is relevant and necessary for the provision of our legal service.

How long will we keep your personal information?

We will keep your personal information for as long as it is required, and then in line with the Council's retention policy. All information will be held securely and destroyed under confidential conditions

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
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 data along with all other personal records.

If you wish to see a copy of your records you should contact the Data Protection Officer (data.protection@westoxon.gov.uk). You are entitled to receive a copy of our 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:

Legal Service
West Oxfordshire Council
Council Offices
Witney
OX28 1PB
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 in any of the ways described here, please tell us. Contact data.protection@westoxon.gov.uk.

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