Somerset Council elected Councillors are committed to protecting your privacy when you use our services and when you approach a Councillor for assistance or a response to a query. This Privacy Notice explains how Somerset Councillors use information about you and how, together, we protect your privacy.
Personal information can be anything that identifies and relates to a living person. This can include information that, when put together with other information, can then identify a person. For example, this could be your name and contact details.
Some information is ‘special’ and needs more protection due to its sensitivity. It’s often information you would not want widely known and is very personal to you. This is likely to include:
In order for the elected Councillors to deal with your request for assistance or respond to your query, it is necessary for them to collect, store and process your personal information to provide you with the relevant information, services or support requested.
To assist in dealing with your request or responding to you query Councillors may need to share some of your personal information with our Officers. They may also need to share your personal information with other relevant agencies and bodies, such as local authorities, government agencies, public bodies, health trusts and support organisations.
Any sharing will be made on a case-by-case basis; using the minimum personal information required, with the appropriate security controls in place and on a ‘need to know’ basis. Where the information is shared with another relevant agency or body, they will inform you of with whom it was shared, unless there is a legal reason not to do so.
When campaigning for election, as the representative of a political party, Councillors can use personal information, such as mailing lists, legitimately held by their parties. However, personal information they hold in their role as your local representative, such as complaints casework, should not be used without your consent.
Councillors will only keep your personal information for as long is required to deal with your request or query. In the main Councillors will review all records containing personal information every six months and delete those that are no longer needed. Where information is shared with an Officer of the Council, the council’s own retention schedule will apply.
Your rights
The law gives you a number of rights to control what personal information is used by a Councillor and how it is used. If you wish to exercise any of these rights, you should contact the Councillor directly.
