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The first Data Protection Act became law in 1984. It established a set of rules to regulate the use of automatically processed information, such as data held on computer systems.
In 1998 a new Data Protection Act was given royal assent and became law on the 1st March 2000. The new Act extended the scope of the 1984 Act and brought UK Data Protection law into line with the rest of the European Community.
The Act was introduced to protect personal data, that is data about individuals no matter how it is processed, who processes it or what it is processed for. It is designed to ensure that data relating to living people is handled responsibly. For example, the data must be:
The Act sets out rules and conditions which all users of personal information such as this authority must obey when obtaining and using information about you.
The Act also provides you with certain rights which must be respected.
The Act provides you with these statutory rights:
The Local Authority uses information about individuals to carry out specific functions for which it is responsible and in turn provide you with services you require.
The Council is also under a duty to protect the public funds that it administers and, to this end, may also use the information that you have provided for:
The Local Authority may share this information with other bodies administering or in receipt of public funds solely for this purpose. There may be times when we will be required to disclose information by law for the purposes of preventing or detecting crime or protecting children and young people from harm.
A list of the types of information held by the Council, known as the ‘register of notifications’, is held at the office of the Information Commissioner.
You can search this by visiting their website:-
http://www.esd.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/esd/search.asp
You will need the notification number - Z7097798 or you can enter Gedling Borough Council.
This authority only requires your consent if we are going to process data about you for purposes other than those we are required to provide by law, or where we intend using data required for one legal purpose for another.
All of our application forms and requests for information explain why we require the information requested and whether we need your consent or not.
A request to see the information the authority holds about you must be in writing. You will need to provide your name and address and it would be helpful if you could provide details of the services you are receiving from the authority and any other information e.g. rent or council tax number, benefit entitlements, that may help us find your information.
To provide us with all the necessary information to complete your request please download, complete and send in the following form:
Data protection request for information
Yes. A fee of £10 is payable.
The information cannot be provided until this fee has been paid. The fee will be required once we have confirmed that you are who you say you are. As you appreciate, we are dealing with sensitive personal information and we are required to confirm your identity before disclosure of any personal information.
You must write to the authority informing us that the data we hold is incorrect and ask for it to be corrected. The authority must tell you what it has done within 21 days of receiving your request.
If the authority does not agree that the information is incorrect you may ask for your disagreement to be recorded on your records.
You can also appeal to the Information Commissioner or the court if the authority does not correct the information.
Firstly, you should make a complaint via the Councils Complaints procedure, contact the main switchboard or call into the main office for a Complaints Form.
If after this procedure you are still not satisfied you can make a complaint to the Information Commissioner.
The Act requires the authority to respond no later than 40 days after receiving your request. If this is not the case or a refusal is made you can appeal to the court.
Claims for compensation are made through the court which will only support these if you can show that the authority had not taken reasonable care to ensure it complied with the Act and in the case of the use of incorrect data it is satisfied that you have suffered damage as a result of the use of such data.
Contact for assistance is:
Helen Barrington
Senior Solicitor
Gedling Borough Council
Civic Centre
Arnot Hill Park
Arnold
Nottingham
NG5 6LU
Telephone: 0115 901 3896
Email Inforequest@gedling.gov.uk
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