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Privacy notice – councillor complaints

North Somerset Council is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office for the purposes of processing personal data. The information you provide will be held and used in accordance with the requirements of UK and European data protection law. The information will form part of the complaint file, and held while the Member remains in office, unless the complaint is unfounded, in which case it is held for one year from resolution.

Unless otherwise agreed with you, we will only collect the minimum personal data required to deliver the service, which includes your name, contact details, details of the complaint and names of any third parties involved in the complaint. It does not include any special category personal information, or information relating to criminal convictions or offences.

The information will be used for the investigation into your complaint; our statutory duty under the Localism Act, and in accordance with Article 6(1)(c) of GDPR.

We will not use your personal information in a way that may cause you unwarranted nuisance. Failure to provide the information could result in the inability to investigate your complaint.

The information provided may be shared with the Standards sub-committee, deputy monitoring officer, councillors, elected Members, police, Planning officers, Parish clerks, co-opted Members, who have demonstrated that they have a lawful and legitimate interest in the information, in accordance with the processes stipulated in the Localism Act. Your data is never shared or processed outside of the UK.

We may lawfully disclose information to public sector agencies to prevent or detect fraud or other crime, or to support the national fraud initiatives and protect public funds under the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014. Under the conditions of the Digital Economy Act 2017, we may also share personal data provided to us with other public authorities as defined in the Act, for the purposes of fraud or crime detection or prevention, to recover monies owed to us, to improve public service delivery, or for statistical research. We do not share the information with other organisations for commercial purposes.

You have the right to see the personal data we process about you, as well as the right of rectification and restriction (to destruction of records only).

If you have any questions or concerns about the way we process your personal data, contact our Data Protection Officer at DPO@n-somerset.gov.uk