As the Council’s Legal Services department, we provide legal advice and representation to internal clients including the Electoral Registration Officer, Returning Officer and Human Resources. Some of the information that you provide to our service departments is passed to us.
We are required to comply with the professional standards and regulations of the Solicitors Regulation Authority and other professional codes of conduct.
Processing activity - In general terms, we process personal information relating to the following areas of law:
- building control
- commercial property
- community safety
- complaints
- contract advice and preparation
- data protection
- defending legal proceedings
- employment
- environmental
- freedom of information
- highways
- housing
- human resources advice including employment tribunal
- judicial review
- leases
- licensing
- litigation (civil and criminal)
- local government
- ombudsman
- planning
- procurement
- property and conveyancing (council related property disposals and acquisition)
- prosecutions for breaches of legislation applicable to us as local authority
- regulatory notices
- right to buy
- case files
- general correspondence between you and us
Information requirements - our processing activities may include:
- full name
- address including postcode
- date of birth
- telephone number
- email address
- forwarding address(es)
- National Insurance Number
- CCTV images
- criminal conviction(s)
- health information
Failure to provide your personal data may result in us being unable to complete legal transactions with you or may lead to you failing to receive important legal documents and relevant correspondence
Lawful bases1 - our lawful bases for processing your personal information are:
- UK GDPR Article 6(1)(b) - where it is necessary to fulfil your contractual obligations with us e.g. entering into a lease
- UK GDPR Article 6(1)(c) - where it is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims
- UK GDPR Article 6(1)(e) & s.8(c) Data Protection Act 2018 - where needed for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in us (under legislation applicable to our client departments) – see our service specific privacy notices)
- UK GDPR Articles 9(1) and (2)(g) as supplemented by DPA 2018 section 10(3) & Schedule 1, Part 2, paras 6(1) and (2)(a) - processed for reasons of substantial public interest under the laws that apply to us
- UK GDPR Article 10 and DPA 2018 section 10(5) & Schedule 1, Part 2, paras. 6 and 10 - processing of data relating to criminal convictions and offences (including alleged offences ) and preventing and detecting unlawful acts
We have a Data Protection Policy that sets out how this information will be handled.
Data sharing - we may share and receive information from:
- our department(s) including Electoral Registration
- Councillors and Independent Members (as applicable)
- Members of Parliament
- other local authorities
- Government agencies
- Courts/tribunals, arbitrators, adjudicators and mediators
- HM Land Registry
- Ombudsmen
- lawyers, surveyors/valuers and other professionals who may be acting on our behalf
We may also rely on a number of exemptions, which allow us to share information without needing to comply with all the rights and obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018. Please refer to the Kent and Medway Information Agreement for further details on our sharing arrangements.
Retention period - we keep your personal information for the minimum period necessary. The information outlined in this Privacy Notice will be kept in accordance with the retention periods referred to in our Asset Information Register. All information will be held securely and disposed of confidentially.
Anonymisation - your personal information may be converted ('anonymised') into statistical or aggregated data in such a way that ensures that you cannot be identified from it. Aggregated data cannot, by definition, be linked back to you as an individual and may be used to conduct research and analysis, including the preparation of statistics for use in our reports.
Right to object - where processing your personal information is required for the performance of a public interest task (see our lawful bases above), you have the right to object on ‘grounds relating to your particular situation’. We will have to demonstrate why it is appropriate for us to continue to use your personal data.
Changes to this Privacy Notice - we review this Privacy Notice regularly and will place updates on our website.
Please refer to our Corporate Privacy Notice for further details of how we process your personal information.
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1 Note that we may process your personal information on more than one lawful basis depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your information
GDPR Legal Services Privacy Notice