This page has been created to inform you about how the Council uses your personal data and how we comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation. This page is here to answer any questions you may have about the use of your data by the Council and signpost you to where you can find out more information if you would like to.
What is Personal Data??
Personal data is information that, either on its own or when added to other information, can identify a living individual. This can include names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, etc.
It can also include letters, emails, photographs, video footage and call recordings.
Some data is classified as Special Category Data. This data is sensitive and is treated with an extra level of confidentiality. This data includes data about ethnic origin, religious and philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation and preference, trade union membership and political views, health data, biometric data (e.g. fingerprints and facial recognition) and genetic data.
What is the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)?
The UK GDPR, together with the Data Protection Act 2018, forms a substantial part of the UK’s legislative framework regarding data protection.
The Principles of the UK GDPR tell the Council that they must process (use) your personal data in the following ways:
- Fairly and transparently, which keeps you informed about how your data is used
- In a legal way that complies with the UK GDPR and all other laws
- For the specific purposes that we have told you about
- In a way, that means we only use the correct amount of data and don’t use data about you that we don’t need
- Kept accurately and up-to-date
- Kept for no longer than is necessary, as advised by law and best practice
- Stored securely and protected from loss and unauthorised access
What data we collect
The personal data we collect from you includes, but is not restricted to:
- questions, queries or feedback you leave, including your email address if you contact Knowsley Council
- your email address and subscription preferences when you sign up to the Knowsley Council newsletter
- how you use our emails - for example, whether you open them and which links you click on
- information on how you use the site, using cookies and page tagging techniques
Where you provide your consent, we use Google Analytics cookies which are used to process information about:
- The pages you visit on Knowsley.gov.uk
- How long you spend on each page
- What device you are using to navigate the site
- What you click on while you’re visiting the site
We make sure you cannot be directly identified by Google Analytics data. We do this by using Google Analytics’ IP address anonymisation feature and by removing any other personal data from the titles or URLs of the pages you visit.
View our service level privacy notices
Why do we collect or use your information?
The majority of the functions and services the Council provides are because we have an obligation or a power in law to provide them
The majority of the functions and services the Council provides are because they have an obligation or a power in law to provide them. This legal duty/power is also why we will collect personal data, as we need it to perform our legal duties.
Examples of our legal powers can be found in legislation such as the Children Act 1989, the Local Government Act and the Localism Act 2011.
Where the Council has the power in law to provide a service and to collect your data for this reason, you will not be asked for your consent to provide the information.
Examples of the purposes for which we may use your information include, but are not restricted to:
- To provide you with a service or in response to an enquiry (e.g., making a benefit claim).
- To monitor our performance in responding to your request
- To improve our website and online services
- To send you the Knowsley Council newsletter (if you have subscribed)
- To allow us to communicate with you and provide services appropriate to your needs (for example, arranging suitable access arrangements if you have mobility difficulties)
- To meet any legal requirements, the Council is subject to
- To process financial transactions, including grants, payments and benefits involving us, or where we are acting on behalf of other government bodies.
- Where you have consented to the processing
- Where processing is necessary for the prevention and/or detection of crime (for example, where we are involved in the National Fraud Initiative)
- Where it is necessary to protect individuals from harm or injury
Further details of the Council’s general purposes for processing information can be found on our Information Commissioner’s Office registration page.
Who do we share your information with?
The Council may need to share your personal information with a range of partners to provide you with services or to administer our functions.
We only share personal data where the law specifically allows it, or we have a legal obligation (e.g. a court order) to do so. When we share your personal data, we will always do so in line with data protection legislation.
Examples of partners we may share your information with, and associated reasons for sharing the information, include but are not restricted to:
- Police Forces – where the information is required to prevent and detect crime
- The Cabinet Office – as part of the National Fraud Initiative
- Local Health Trusts – as part of our safeguarding obligations
- Contractors – where commissioned services need your personal data to provide Council services on our behalf
- Registered Social Landlords – as part of our housing obligations
- Schools – as part of our education obligations
- Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service – as part of our safeguarding and community care obligations
- Central Government – as part of our obligations under the National Impact Study
NHS Data Opt-out Scheme
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has produced guidance for all organisations that handle health data. This guidance says that the Council must give our service users the chance to opt out of whether their sensitive health data is used for research purposes by the NHS. If you wish to opt out of having your sensitive data used for research, please visit the NHS Make Your Choice website and opt out of this service. If you have any questions about this, please get in touch with a member of staff.
Marketing
You will not receive marketing communications from the Council useless you have given us your explicit consent to receive them. You can opt out of these communications at any point by clicking “unsubscribe” at the bottom of our emails or replying with “stop” to any text messages you receive.
External websites
Knowsley Council is not responsible for any material on external websites that are accessed from our websites, and content should not be considered to be endorsed by Knowsley Council.
Photography
If you have previously consented to having your photograph used in council publicity but would now like us to stop using your image, please email us at communications@knowsley.gov.uk.
CCTV
We have installed CCTV systems in some of our locations used by members of the public for the purposes of public safety and the prevention and detection of crime. In these locations signs are prominently displayed notifying you that CCTV is in operation and providing you with details of who to contact for further information about them.
We will only disclose CCTV images to third parties for the purposes, as stated above, of public safety and the prevention and detection of crime. CCTV images will not be released to the media for entertainment purposes or placed on the internet.
If you would like to request a copy of footage of yourself, please see Subject Access Requests.
Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.
Details about how we use cookies.
Further Information
For further information about your data protection rights and Council policies, please visit our data protection section.
Registration
The Council is a registered data controller and has an up-to-date registration with the Information Commissioner’s Office. Our registration number is – Z5775143. You can view the Council’s registration here.
Contact
If you have any questions regarding how the Council uses your personal data, please contact our Risk & Resilience Team in the first instance using the contact details below.
Data Protection Officer, Knowsley Council, Municipal Building, Archway Road, Huyton, Liverpool, L36 9UX
Or email: data.protection.officer@knowsley.gov.uk
If you wish to complain about how the Council has handled your personal data, please do so via the Have Your Say form.
The Information Commissioner’s Office regulates information law in the UK and is responsible for Data Protection, Freedom of Information, Environment Information Regulations and direct marketing.
You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office using the following details. However, they may ask you if you have raised your complaint with the Council first:
The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Telephone: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45
Website: https://ico.org.uk/
This page was updated in January 2023.