Data protection

 

Data Protection
 

The Data Protection Act 1998 governs the way that the Council and other organisations hold and deal with your personal data.  It also gives you the right to apply for a copy of specific information held about you. You can, if you wish, appoint someone to apply for you e.g. a Solicitor or a member of your family.

This Council has adopted a Statement of Intent and has a Data Protection Policy.  If there is a breach or suspected breach of Data Protection we will follow our Data Security Breach Management Policy Should you wish to make an application for a copy of information held about you, you can do so by completing the Subject Access Request Form and posting it to the Data Protection Officer, Forest of Dean District Council, Council Offices, High Street, Coleford, Gloucestershire GL16 8HG.  The application incurs a cost of £10 which should be paid by cheque made payable to Forest of Dean District Council and submitted with your application.

To help ensure confidentiality, we will need to ask for any request to be made: -

  1. using the specified Subject Access Request Form;
  2. with sufficient information to locate the data requested; (Note: If your request relates to information which forms part of a Code of Conduct complaint please see below)
  3. with sufficient evidence to confirm your identity e.g. identification pages of your passport or of a current photo driving licence and a current utility bill or credit card or bank statement which includes your name and address; and
  4. the fee of £10
     

The law says that we must supply the information within 40 days of receiving sufficient details to enable us to find the information and satisfactory evidence regarding the identity of the person making the request. Failure to supply any of this may therefore delay the request. However, your request will be acknowledged within 7 working days of our receipt.

Generally, information will be supplied free of charge, however, photocopying charges may apply in cases where the information to be provided is considered substantial.

Request for Personal Data relating to Standards Investigations

Following a meeting of the Councils Standards Committee on 7 June 2010 it was resolved that Subject Access requests which relate to information obtained as a result of a Code of Conduct complaint would be dealt with as follows:
 

1.            Acknowledgement of request is sent;

2.           Officer reviews the complaint form received from complainant and any associated documents;

3.            Information relating to the subject member is extracted from the complaint form and copied into a separate document, which can be attached to covering letter stating that the information has been separated as the document also contained third party data, a release of which would be a breach of the Data Protection Act;

4.         If an investigation has been undertaken, in accordance with s63 Local Government Act 2000 and Regulation 12 of the Standards Committee (England) Regulations 2008 no information obtained as part of that investigation is released unless it falls into any of the specific conditions;

5.         The person making the request is notified of their right to a review of the way their subject access request has been dealt with via the Head of Paid Service in the first instance and the Information Commissioner thereafter

 If you have any queries on the Councils Data Protection Policy or on making a Subject Access Request please email: datarequest@fdean.gov.uk