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Electoral Services Privacy Notice

This privacy notice explains how the Electoral Registration Officer / Returning Officer for East Lindsey District Council collects and uses personal information about you to deliver the statutory elections and electoral registration service.

The Electoral Registration Officer/Returning Officer is a 'controller' of the personal data that we collect about you.

We will use information we collect from you for the lawful purpose of maintaining the register of electors and administering elections and referendums.

What personal data do we collect?

We keep records about potential and registered electors, voters and their proxies, candidates and their agents, details of those that have subscribed nomination forms or requested an election, staff employed at an election and the people responsible for venues we hire.

These records may include:

  • Your name, address, nationality, date of birth, national insurance number, any previous   name(s), telephone numbers and email addresses
  • Scanned application forms and signatures
  • Proof of identification documents
  • Notes about any relevant circumstances you have told us
  • Your previous or redirected address
  • Other occupants in your home
  • If you are over 76 or aged 16/17
  • Whether you have chosen to opt out of the open version of the electoral register.
  • Bank details for staff we employ at elections

What is the information used for?

We will only use the information you give us for electoral purposes, including matching it against other sources of data to support the electoral register. We will look after personal information securely and we will follow the data protection legislation. We will not give personal information about you, or any personal information you may provide on other people, to anyone else or another organisation unless we have to by law.

The information contained on the electoral register is used to conduct an annual canvass of households to ensure the register is kept up to date in accordance with the Representation of the People Regulations 2001, the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 and the Representation of the People (Annual Canvass) (Amendment) Regulations 2019.

We will also use personal data contained on the electoral register and absent vote lists to issue poll cards and postal votes to electors at elections and referendums.

Who your information may be shared with?

To verify your identity when registering to vote the data you provide will be processed by the Individual Electoral Registration Digital Service managed by the Cabinet Office. As part of this process your data will be shared with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Cabinet Office suppliers that are data processors for the Individual Electoral Registration Service. You can find more information about this here: https://www.registertovote.service.gov.uk/register-to-vote/privacy.

  • Before conducting the annual canvass to update the electoral register, the Electoral Registration Officer must disclose data to the Cabinet Office as part of a national data match process. The national data match process involves the checking of information already held on the electoral register against data held by the DWP.
  • Software providers and contracted printers who will use the information only on our instructions. They won't use it for any other reasons and they have to look after it in the same way we would.
  • Other departments in the Council for the purpose of collecting debt, preventing fraud, identifying the misuse of public funds and any legal and statutory requirements.
  • Public Services Partnership Services Ltd (PSPS) - for the purpose of confirming elector registration (Customer Services) and for processing of staff election payments (HR/Payroll)

The information you provide is used to produce and maintain the full electoral register and the open (edited) register, which include name and address details.

We are required to provide copies of the full electoral registerto certain individuals and organisations in accordance with the Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations 2001. These organisations and individuals are:

  • Credit reference agencies, the British Library, the Office of National Statistics, the Electoral Commission and the Boundary Commissions and other statutory recipients of the Electoral Register.
  • Jury Summoning Bureau - indicating those persons who are aged 76 or over who are no longer eligible for jury service.
  • Electoral Registration Officers and Returning Officers.
  • Registered political parties and local constituency parties, elected representatives, town and parish councils, candidates at elections and other permitted participants who are able to use it for electoral purposes only.
  • Crime prevention or the detection of fraud as part of the National Fraud Initiative.
  • Police Forces and other agencies for the prevention or detection of crime

Anyone who receives information from us has a legal duty to keep it confidential. It is a crime for anyone who has a copy of the full register to pass information from this register to others, if they do not have a lawful reason.

The full electoral register is a public document and can be viewed under supervision of our staff. Anyone inspecting the register can only take extracts by handwritten notes. The information must not be used for direct marketing purposes unless it has been published in the open (edited) register.

The open (edited) registeris an extract of the full register. If your details are included in the open register, your name and address can be sold to third parties who may use it for any purpose. You can choose when you register whether you would like to be excluded from the open register. You can also opt out of the open register at any time by contacting electoral services. Your name and address will be included in the open register unless you ask for it to be removed.

How long we hold your information

The Electoral Registration Officer and Returning Officer is obliged to process your personal data in relation to preparing for and conducting elections and referendums. Your details will be kept and updated in accordance with our legal obligations and in line with statutory retention periods.

Your rights

You have a number of rights which relate to your personal data.

You are entitled to request access to any personal data we hold about you and ask for a copy of it. We try to ensure that any information we hold about you is accurate. You have the right to ask us to correct this if it is found to be incorrect.

You have a right to request that we stop, or restrict the processing of your personal data, in certain circumstances. Where possible we will seek to comply with your request, but we may be required to continue to hold and process information to comply with a legal requirement.

You can find more information about this here - www.registertovote.service.gov.uk/register-to-vote/privacy.

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, please tell us. Contact the Data Protection Officer at the below:

East Lindsey District Council

The Hub

Mareham Road

Horncastle

LN9 6PH

Email: data.protection@e-lindsey.gov.uk

 

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.