Polices & Regulations

As a registered Data Controller with the Information Commissioners Office (Reg. No ZA228722), Billingborough Parish Council takes the protection of personal data seriously. The Council aims to remain compliant with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, which supersede the Data Protection Act 1998, to safeguard users’ privacy.

Collecting and retaining some personal information is necessary if we are to satisfy the expectations and requirements of our Parish, visitors and website users.

This Privacy Notice aims to explain how Billingborough Parish Council use your personal information and the procedures followed to protect it; this applies to all personal data collected for or on behalf of the Parish Council and includes information collected by letter, email, face to face, telephone or through the website. The Council will never disclose personal details without the consent of the owner unless required to by law. Details are only held for as long as is necessary for Parish Council business, normally not more than 7 years.

How we use your personal information:

We collect and use your personal information, so we can provide you with statutory and other services. We use your information for the purpose for which you provided the information. We also use this information to monitor our performance in responding to your request. We do not disclose or share sensitive or confidential information without your explicit consent except in a small number of situations where disclosure is allowed by law, or where we have good reason to believe that failing to do so would put you or someone else at risk.

Billingborough Parish Council use your information in the following ways:

• to tell you about services and provide services appropriate to you, for example highlighting additional help or services available to you.

• for insight purposes to allow us to analyse patterns and trends of service usage

• for service and financial planning, to help us create policy and inform budgets and decision making.

• to process financial transactions including grants and payments involving the Council or where the Council is acting on behalf of other government organisations, for example South Kesteven District Council.

• to help us to verify your identity, if you ask us for help.

• to manage contracts, leases and agreements, e.g. Row Gardens Allotment Tenants

• to ensure that the council meets its statutory duties, including those imposed by the Equality and Health and Safety Acts.

• where necessary for law enforcement, e.g. vandalism, fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour.

• to comment on Planning Applications.

• to help investigate any concerns or complaints you have may have about the village services or facilities.

• to enable the Council to sign post to the correct government body or organisation.

• where otherwise allowed under law. For further information on the GDPR, please refer to the Information Commissioner’s website

The Council is obliged to protect public funds. We may use personal information and data-matching techniques to help us to detect and prevent fraud and ensure public money is spent in the most appropriate and cost-effective way. To achieve this, we may share information with other organisations which audit or administer public funds. This includes the Audit Commission, the Department for Work and Pensions, other local authorities, HM Revenue and Customs, and the Police.

Correspondence:

Email. Emails that are sent to you or you send to us may be kept as a record of contact. We may also store your email address for future use. If we need to send you sensitive or confidential information, we will check that we are using the correct email address and may use additional security measures, such as a password or encryption. If you send us sensitive information, you should use similar security measures or secure postal services.

Letters. Letters or any other written correspondence that are sent to you or you send to us may be kept as a record of contact. We may also store your contact details (such as name, address and telephone number) for future use. If we need to send you sensitive or confidential information, we will check that we are using the correct details and may use additional security measures, secure postal services or hand delivering. If you send us sensitive information, you should use similar security measures or secure postal services

Telephone. A written note of telephone conversations or messages may be kept as a record of contact. We may also store your number for future use.

Website:

Users. When you visit this website, the Council and website administrators (Lincolnshire County Council “LCC”) use a third-party service, such as Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. This is used to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be up front about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.

Security and Performance. We use a third-party service to help maintain the security and performance of our website. To deliver this service it processes the IP addresses of visitors to the site.

Links to other websites. This privacy notice does not cover the links within this site to other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit.

Use of Cookies. This website uses cookies to maintain and keep track of users’ preferences and authenticated sessions, to identify technical issues, user trends and effectiveness of campaigns, and to monitor and improve the overall performance.

By using our website, you are agreeing to accept this privacy notice. This notice will be reviewed at least annually, so please check back here each time you submit personal data to us.

Your rights You can ask us to stop processing your personal data at any point. The Council will try to meet your request but may be required to hold or process information to meet legal duties.

Access to personal information.

You are entitled to request access to and a copy of any information we hold about you. You can find out if we hold any personal information by making a ‘subject access request’ (SAR) under the General Data Protection Regulations. If we do hold information about you, we will:

• give you a description of it;

• tell you why we are holding it;

• tell you who it could be disclosed to; and

• let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form.

Please make any such request in writing via our email address BillingboroughParishClerk@Gmail.com or by post to Data Controller, Billingborough Parish Council, The Blackmiles, Vine St, Billingborough, Sleaford, Lincolnshire NG34 0QE. We will normally respond within 20 days.

If you find that the information that the Council holds about you is no longer accurate, you have the right to ask to have this corrected. The Council may not always be able to change or remove it but will correct factual inaccuracies and may include your comments in the records.

More details on submitting a SAR can be found here.

If at any time you feel that we have failed to meet these standards detailed in this Privacy Notice, please contact the Parish Council Chairman, Mrs. Chris Woodhead at bwoodheadbillingboroughpc@gmail.com or make a complaint direct to the Information Commissioner using their website www.ico.org.uk/concerns

Adopted: May 2018 Revised in March 2024