Privacy Policy

Collecting your personal information

We collect your personal information in order to provide our services to you. This includes the details about yourself that you provide over the telephone, on forms, by email, in letter, in person and online.

We’ll only collect information that is necessary or is required by law and we’ll explain the reasons for this.

Personal information means any data from which you can be identified, for example:

• your name
• your address
• your email address
• your telephone numbers
• your date of birth
• your ethnic background and information about religious belief or none
• any other information that may be used to identify you

We recognise that the information you provide may be sensitive and we will respect your privacy.

You may choose not to provide us with personal information, although some of our services may not be available as a result.

If you would like to see or correct any of your personal information please contact us:

Data Protection Act 1998

We collect and process information in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. The Act informs you of your rights about your personal information and our responsibilities in keeping it safe and processing it correctly and proportionately.

Barnsley Council is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office as a Data Controller. Our registration number is Z5121328.

The council’s Data Protection Policy informs our customers, members of the public and external parties of the processes we have established for complying with the Data Protection Act 1998.

Read more about Data Protection on the website of the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Website privacy

We use cookies and other technologies to collect information about visits to our website. Cookies are small files that websites place on your computer to help make them easier to use.

Our cookies aren’t used to identify you personally. They’re just here to make the site work better for you. You can manage and/or delete these small files as you wish.

Keeping your personal information

Your personal information is stored securely in UK data centre. We have specific technologies and security measures in place to protect it in accordance with the government’s Public Service Network and NHS Information Governance standards.

Our security measures include preventing unauthorised access or misuse of your information as well as protecting it from accidental loss, destruction or damage.

When your personal information is no longer required we dispose of it securely. Please be aware that whilst we do everything we can to protect your privacy, we cannot guarantee the security of any information whilst it is being sent between us and you, for example, in the post or to your personal email address.

Sharing your personal information

We will use the information you give us when we contact you about services.

We will not disclose your information to anyone else, or without your permission, unless there are exceptional circumstances. This might be where there is a risk to your health and safety or that of others, or if we are required to share information by law.

Your personal details will not be made available for commercial use without your permission.

Your rights

You can:

• ask for a copy of the information we hold about you and ask us to correct any mistakes
• find out about any agreement we have with other organisations for sharing information
• request us to stop using your personal information if it causes damage or distress
• learn about the circumstances when we can pass on your personal information without telling you, for example to prevent and detect crime or to produce anonymised statistics
• see our instructions to our employees and contractors on how to collect, use and delete your personal information
• check our procedures for ensuring that the information we hold is accurate and up to date.

Accessibility

If you need help understanding this information please contact us.