Your privacy

We want you to feel confident about the privacy and security of your personal information and we know that the proper handling of this information is vital.

We will take reasonable steps to make sure we comply with data protection law, especially the prevention of any unauthorised access to personal information.

What is personal information

This is information that identifies you as a living, private individual or could do so if combined with other information. The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)) describes this personal information as "personal data". Personal information could be held electronically or in another format such as paper.  Examples of personal information are information about Council Tax payers, school pupils, social work clients, council housing tenants etc. 

What information we hold about people

We have to hold and use a large amount of personal data, including sensitive data so we can provide services. This can be about current, past and prospective employees, suppliers and service users/customers.

We can hold information such as your name, address and date of birth as well as more sensitive data where appropriate, about health, racial/ethnic origin or any criminal offences. The type of information we hold will depend upon the type of service we provide for the person.

How we get personal information

In most cases the information will have come from you when you apply for the service from us. However, sometimes it will come from a partner, legal representative, relative or other agency, such as the NHS.

How we handle personal information

We are registered in terms of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). This means that we have notified the Information Commissioner of purpose(s) for collecting and holding the data. We will not use personal information for any other purpose unless we have consent or the law or a business requires us to do so.

How we decide on new uses of personal information

In terms of our Privacy Policy, before we start using personal information (either already in our control or to be collected/obtained) for a new purpose or introduce new systems that involve the use of personal information, including the changing of how we hold the information, we carry out a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) before making any changes or introducing anything new.

In order that people can see that we are complying with our policy, we publish a list of completed PIAs (together with their executive summaries) for public inspection.

We will let you know of any new uses for your information as soon as we can, however there may be times when we can't let you know for example during a criminal investigation where it may affect the investigation.

Our undertaking

We know that if we don't comply with the UK GDPR, including protecting information we will lose your trust and the trust of our partners. We must follow the UK GDPR when collecting and using personal information and to comply we must take steps to make sure all personal information is:

• fairly and lawfully held and used
• held and used for specified purposes
• adequate, relevant and not excessive
• accurate and up-to-date
• not kept any longer than necessary
• held and used in accordance with the data subject's rights
• kept secure
• not sent to countries that do not have adequate protection

What we do with your information

We will only use your personal information where we need to do so to help provide a service or other council business such as collecting council tax and other statutory duties.

Who will we give personal information to

Sometimes we will share personal information with other agencies but we will only do this with your consent. However there may be times when we will share information without consent to agencies such as the Police or the NHS. We will only do this in compliance with the UK GDPR.

How to find out what information we hold about you

You can ask for a copy of the information we hold about you - this is called a Subject Access Request.

If you want to make a request you should be as specific as possible about the information you want as this  could speed up our reply. If it is unclear from you request what information you want we will get back to you for more detail as soon as possible.

To make a request you should email dp@southlanarkshire.gov.uk

If the information we have is wrong

Under the UK GDPR you have the right to have personal information corrected or stop us using information if it is wrong or misleading.