Electoral Privacy Notice

Privacy Notice – Electoral Services

Mansfield District Council respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice explains how we will look after the personal data you may disclose to us in relation to providing voter registration and running electoral events.

It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.

The Data Controller:

The Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) and Returning Officer (RO) are the Data Controllers for any personal data you give to us and who collect and use information about residents to enable us to carry out specific functions for which we are statutorily responsible. Our full details are:

Address: Electoral Registration Officer/Returning Officer, Mansfield District Council, Civic Centre, Chesterfield Road South, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire NG19 7BH.
Telephone: 01623 463463
Email: mdc@mansfield.gov.uk

Data Protection Officer:

The Council’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted at the address above or by email to dpo@mansfield.gov.uk.

What personal data we collect:

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you:

  • Identity data For electoral purposes this includes names, signatures to enable verification of postal votes statements for postal voters, dates of birth, nationality to determine voting franchise, national insurance number, numerical identifiers for the electoral register, opt-out preference for the open register, voting area such as ward or constituency.
    For staff employed by the Returning Officer to do work on elections we, in addition, hold bank details, work eligibility evidence, driving licence details, disability statuses, employer information, and miscellaneous notes such as job history.
  • Contact data For electoral purposes and electoral staffing purposes this includes addresses, email addresses, IP addresses, telephone numbers and home address.
  • Financial data For electoral staffing purposes employed on electoral duties this includes bank account details.
  • Special categories of personal data For election purposes we hold information on election candidates’ political party details. For electoral registration purposes we hold evidence information that would enable an anonymous entry to be made on the register of electors, evidence required to register to vote, nationality data to determine whether you are entitled to register to vote and which elections you are eligible to vote in, voting method preferences (such as postal or proxy voting).
     

What we do with your personal data

We will use your personal data to:

  • To carry out the public tasks of Voter registration and running Elections including the Returning Officer and Electoral Registration Officer.
  • Contact you with regard to any matter arising from Electoral Registration and Running Elections.
  • Keeping election staff informed of upcoming working opportunities for elections (where you have indicated your agreement to this).

How long we keep your personal data

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

Who we share your data with (third parties)

  • We may share your data with our software providers to be able to provide IT support to our computer systems.
  • The process of checking citizens’ personal identifiers to ensure eligibility for inclusion in the Electoral Register is overseen by the Cabinet Office via the IER Digital Service.
  • To verify your identity, the data you provide will be processed by the Individual Electoral Registration Digital Service managed by the Cabinet Office.  As part of the process your data will be stored with the DWP and Cabinet Office suppliers that are data processors for the Individual Electoral Registration Digital Service. You can find out more information about this at https://www.registertovote.service.gov.uk/register-to-vote/privacy.
  • Your personal data is also shared with external print contractors to enable items such as poll cards and postal voting packs to be produced.
  • Your data may be shared with others where the health and safety of others is at risk.

Specific legislation also applies to the following electoral functions:

  • Electoral Register data is shared with registered political parties, elected representatives, candidates, agents and other permitted participants who can use it for electoral purposes only.
  • Details of whether you have voted (but not how you have voted) can be shared with those who are entitled in law to receive it after an election
  • Credit reference agencies, the British Library, UK Statistics Authority, and the Electoral Commission are statutory recipients of electoral register information and the Council must share this data with them.
  • The law sometimes requires us to pass on information under special circumstances, crime prevention or the detection of fraud as part of the National Fraud Initiative

We are required by law to report certain information to appropriate authorities – for example:

  • Where a formal court order has been issued
  • For the prevention or detection of a crime
  • To the Jury Central Summoning Bureau indicating those persons who are aged 76 or over and are no longer eligible for jury service

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow third-party service provider to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Mansfield District Council will not sell, assign, disclose or rent your personal data to any other external organisation or individual unless required to do so by law.

The electoral register

The Electoral Register lists the names and addresses of everyone who is registered to vote in public elections.  The Register is used for electoral purposes, such as making sure only eligible people can vote.  It is also used for other limited purposes specified in law, such as:

  • detecting crime (for example fraud)
  • calling people for jury service
  • checking credit applications

The open register

The open register is an extract of the electoral register, but it is not used for elections.  It can be bought by any person, company or organisation.  For example, it is used by businesses and charities to confirm names and address details.  Your name and address will be included in the Open Register unless you ask for them to be removed.  Removing your details from the Open Register does not affect your right to vote.

Protecting your personal data

We are committed to ensuring that your personal data is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place appropriate technical, physical and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect from you. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

International transfer of your data

We do not transfer or process data outside the European Economic Area unless we have your specific consent or where the nature of the processing requires it (for example, because you have chosen to use an email or other communications service which routes data outside the EEA). We have additional protections on your information if it leaves the UK ranging from secure ways of transferring data to ensuring we have a robust contract in place with that third party.

What are cookies?

To make this website easier to use, we sometimes place small text files on your device (for example your iPad or laptop) called cookies.  Most big websites do this too.  They improve things by:

  • Remembering the things you’ve chosen while on our website, so you don’t have to keep re-entering them whenever you visit a new page
  • Remembering data you’ve given (for example, your address) so you don’t need to keep entering it
  • Measuring how you use the website so we can make sure it meets your needs.

By using our website you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device.

We don’t use cookies on this website that collect information about what other websites you visit (often referred to as privacy intrusive cookies).

Our cookies aren’t used to identify you personally.  They’re just here to make the site work better for you.  You can manage and/or delete files as you wish.

To learn more about cookies and how to manage them, visit www.aboutcookies.org  or watch a video about cookies.

Your rights

There are a number of rights that you may exercise depending on the legal basis for processing your personal data.  Please note that not all rights are automatic and some may not be available in certain circumstances where a lawful exception applies.

You can object or withdraw your consent to the use of your personal data at any time. Though in some cases we may not be able to provide your requested service (for example removing your entry from a historic electoral register) where the information processing is an integral part of the service. We will tell you if this is likely to be the case.

You have the right to opt out of the Open Version of the Register, at any time, and we must remove you from this version and tell the statutory recipients in the next update.

Subject to some legal exceptions, you have the right to:

  • request a copy of the personal information the Electoral Registration Officer or Returning Officer holds about you;
  • to have any inaccuracies corrected;
  • to have your personal data erased;
  • to place a restriction on the ERO’s processing of your data;
  • to object to processing; and
  • to request your data to be ported (data portability).

Where the processing of your personal data is based on your consent, in most circumstances you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time and we will act on your instructions.

To learn more about these rights please see the ICOs website: https://ico.org.uk.

Complaints

If you are dissatisfied with the way your personal data is being used by the Council we would ask that you contact the Data Protection Officer in the first instance so that we can deal with your concerns. You have the right to complain at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK supervisory authority for data protection.

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

Website: https://ico.org.uk.
Telephone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745
Fax: 01625 524 510

See also: Mansfield District Council privacy statement: www.mansfield.gov.uk/privacy.