The Data Protection Act
The council is bound to protect your privacy and personal data. It must follow the rules set by the Data Protection legislation. Following these rules ensures the processing of your data is fair and lawful.
Personal data can be any information that identifies you, such as your name or address. Information can relate to your home, work or personal life. It can also include other information such as social care information.
All organisations must follow a set of principles as part of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We use these principles when dealing with your personal information.
The principles ensure information is:
- processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to individuals.
- collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes.
- adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed.
- accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.
- kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed.
- processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures.
Your rights
You have the right to:
- Right to be informed:
- Right to rectification:
- Right to erasure (or "right to be forgotten"):
- Right to restrict processing:
- Right to data portability:
- Right to object:
- Rights related to automated decision-making:
- Right of access:
You have the right to be provided with clear and concise information about how your personal data is collected and used.
You have the right to have inaccurate or incomplete personal data corrected.
You can request the deletion of your personal data in certain circumstances.
You can request that the processing of your personal data be limited, for example, while an objection request is being considered.
This right allows you to obtain your personal data and reuse it for your own purposes across different services.
You can object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
You have rights in relation to any automated decision-making, including profiling, without any human involvement.
You can request a copy of your personal data and supplementary information about its use.
Find out what information is held about you (Subject Access Request)
To get a copy of the information held about you, you can make a request to:
Information Governance
Quadrant
The Silverlink North
North Tyneside
NE27 0BY
Email: foi.officer@northtyneside.gov.uk
Requests should be clear and state what type of information is being required. Whilst you are entitled to request and receive all the information held about you, the Information Commissioners guidance to organisations is that “a reasonable search” should be made to find and retrieve the requested information and these should not be “unreasonable or disproportionate”.
What do I need to do?
By clarifying your request, for example detailing services you have had contact with, and time periods, or providing additional details about the information you would like to receive, will allow us to focus the search on the specific information you require.
To comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018, we may require you to provide two forms of identification. These can be copies of a valid driving licence or passport, marriage/civil partnership certificate, birth certificate. Proof of address such as a bank statement or utility bill which should be dated within the last 3 months.
Requesting information about a third-party or child?
Additionally, if you are requesting information on behalf of a third-party, we require proof of your legal authority to act on their behalf. This can be a signed consent statement from the third-party, power of attorney letter or evidence of parental responsibility if the data subject is a child.
If you are requesting information in relation to a child who is 13 years and over, we require a signed statement of consent from them to share personal data with you.
When will I get a response?
We aim to resolve your request within one month from the receipt of your request; however, under the provisions of the Act, we may extend the deadline by two months for complex requests.
Sharing data with other organisations
We work in partnership with other organisations to:
- improve the quality of life for people living and working in North Tyneside
- make sure that services for residents can be 'joined up' and better coordinated
We may work with partners when:
- dealing with law enforcement
- regulation and licensing
- criminal prosecutions and court proceedings
We are also required to protect the public funds we administer. To help us prevent and detect fraud, we may share some information with other bodies. These would be responsible for auditing and administering public funds.
We will:
- only share personal information when it is lawful to do so
- ensure we respect an individual’s rights
For more information please see the North Tyneside Council Privacy Notice.