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Your data matters! – How we look after your data

As a Local Authority, Nottingham City Council collects, holds and processes a considerable amount of information, including personal information about the citizens we serve, to allow us to provide services effectively. The council recognises that this information is important and that we are responsible to the citizens for the information we hold about them. As such, we take seriously our responsibilities under the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679* and the Data Protection Act 2018*.

Nottingham City Council is a data controller. This means that we have to look after all the personal information we collect and use and make sure that we do this appropriately, correctly and safely.

If you require general information about the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018, information is available on the Information Commissioners website at www.ico.org.uk

How to use our privacy notice

This page will tell you about how we process and protect your personal data, our obligations and responsibilities when we process your personal data and how you can exercise your rights.

You may have been in contact with or accessed a specific service within Nottingham City Council. The button below will tell you more information about the specific reasons why each department processes your personal data, the legal basis for that processing and who they can share your personal data with.

Nottingham City Council Privacy Notice

Individual privacy notices

Each service area at Nottingham City Council has provided an individual privacy notice for you to read. These individual privacy notices explain how they process your personal data that is specific to the services that they provide.

These individual privacy notices provide additional information and should be read alongside this page.

You can search for our individual privacy notices below:


Changes to this privacy notice

Nottingham City Council encourages you to periodically visit the Council’s website to review this notice and to be informed of how Nottingham City Council is protecting your information.

The council will continually review and update this privacy notice to reflect changes in our services and feedback from service users, as well as to comply with changes in the law.

When such changes occur, we will revise the "last updated" date at the top of this notice. If there are substantial changes to this statement or in how the council will use your personal information, we will advertise the updated notice both on the front page of the Nottingham City Council website and in council offices.

This privacy notice was last updated in April 2018.

If you do not have access to a computer or printer and you would like a copy of our latest privacy notice please write to: -

Information Compliance Team
Nottingham City Council
Loxley House
Station Street
Nottingham
NG2 3NG

Personal data is information relating to an identifiable living individual. It includes information such as a name, address, telephone number, date of birth, bank details and information held about a person in case files. Whenever personal data is processed, collected, recorded, stored or disposed of, it must be done within the terms of the Data Protection legislation.

Yes! Some personal information needs more protection due to its sensitive nature. Information that relates to a particular characteristic such as racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data (for example, fingerprint evidence), sexual life, criminal record, prosecutions and medical data.

At Nottingham City Council we ensure that any special data that we collect has extra protections in place to ensure that it is looked after safely and securely.

For more detailed information about what is personal data please see the Information Commissioner’s office at: www.ico.org.uk

The council collects, holds and uses personal data to allow us to provide services on behalf of the citizens of the City of Nottingham. These services include, among other things:- providing schools and educational facilities within the city; providing care and support for children and vulnerable individuals and their families; maintaining and improving the environment and protecting the welfare of citizens more generally.

We process personal data for the following purposes:

  • For the purpose for which you provided the information, e.g. processing information given on a benefit claim form for the purpose of processing your benefit claim and to monitor the council’s performance in responding to your request
  • To allow the council to be able to communicate with you and others and provide services appropriate to your needs, e.g. to be able to arrange suitable access arrangements where the citizen has mobility difficulties
  • To ensure that the council can meet its legal obligations, around the prevention and/or detection of crime, safeguarding children, diversity and equal opportunity Health and Safety, etc
  • Where the council is obliged to undertake regulatory enforcement functions, e.g. licensing, planning enforcement, trading standards, food safety, etc
  • To process financial transactions including grants, payments and benefits involving Nottingham City Council, or where Nottingham City Council is acting on behalf of other government bodies, e.g. Department for Works and Pensions
  • Where necessary to protect individuals from harm or injury
  • For the purposes of research

Nottingham City Council shares your data between services within the council so that we can keep your information up to date as possible and so we can improve the services that we provide to you. Staff can only see the data that is necessary for their job and to be able to provide the services to you.

How does the law allow us to use and hold your personal information?

There are many valid reasons why the council needs to collect and use your personal information, and various Local Government Acts and other legislation allow us to do this where it is appropriate. For more detail about this please see the different Statutory Duties of Local Authorities

If you would like to see how your personal data is used and who it is shared with in relation with the above services and any other services that the council supplies, please click on the following link: Privacy notices

You will see from the privacy notices that sometimes we need your consent to process your personal information. If you have provided a consent this can be removed at any time. If you want to remove that consent please contact the Data Protection Officer and tell us which service you are using so that your request can be dealt with.

Whenever it collects, holds or uses personal information, the council is committed to ensuring that it will:-

  • Recognise that we handle and hold personal data on behalf of individuals
  • Adopt and maintain high standards in respect of the handling and use of that personal data
  • Only collect, hold and use personal data where it is necessary and proportionate to do so
  • Keep personal data securely and will destroy it securely when it is no longer needed
  • Not unnecessarily and without good reason, infringe the privacy of the citizens of Nottingham
  • Consider and address the privacy risks first when planning to use or hold personal information in new ways, such as when introducing new systems
  • Make it easy for individuals to access and correct their personal information and be open with individuals about how we use their information and who we share it with
  • Ensure that there are effective safeguards and systems in place to make sure personal information is kept securely including having a robust data strategy to protect against any disasters as well as malware, hacking, etc
  • Train our staff to properly handle personal information
  • Apply appropriate financial and human resources towards looking after personal information to make sure we can live up to our promises

The council may disclose personal data to third parties, but only where it is necessary, either to comply with a legal obligation, or where permitted under the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018 e.g. where the disclosure is necessary for the purposes of the prevention and/or detection of crime, or where it is necessary to allow a third party working for or on behalf of the council.

The council will strive to ensure that any personal data in its care will be kept safe and that where your information is disclosed to a third party, Nottingham City Council will seek to ensure that the third party has sufficient systems and procedures in place to prevent the loss of personal data.

We have a data protection policy which explains how we look after your personal information. We also have lots of practical measures to protect your information such as:

  • Limiting access on systems to only which staff that need to access the information
  • Providing regular training for staff to make them aware of how to handle your data safely and in accordance with the data protection legislation
  • Having a clear desk policy and guidance about keeping sensitive data in locked places with limited access
  • Having clear policies and guidance for staff who take special data out of the building and clear working at home guidance for all staff to follow
  • Encryption of sensitive electronic communications such as e-mails as well as encryption of disks and memory sticks. Encryption is a means of ensuring that data can only be accessed by authorised users. This means that the information is hidden and cannot be read without a password
  • Regular testing of our IT equipment and keeping up to date with regular security updates

To find out more about our IT security policy click here.

We only keep personal data as long as it is necessary to do so. Sometimes there is a legal reason why we must keep the data for a certain period.

If you would like to see how long your information is kept for you can click on the following link to get more detail:

Retention schedule

1. You can ask for access to the information we hold on you known as a personal information request

You are legally entitled to request access to any records held by Nottingham City Council about yourself. Nottingham City Council will seek to comply with your request, but there may be some situations where it will not be able to do this in full, e.g. where information held was given in confidence or when a professional thinks that it could cause serious harm to you or another’s physical or mental wellbeing if the information was given to you. Also, if we think that giving you the information may stop us from preventing a crime.

If you would like to request a copy of your personal information please complete and return the Personal Information Request form

If you have any questions regarding your rights please visit the following page for further information:

General Data Protection Rights

2. You can ask to change information that you think is inaccurate

If you receive a copy of your information and you find that any information is inaccurate you have the right to ask us to correct the information. We may not always be able to change or remove the information, but we will correct factual inaccuracies and add supplemental comments. In some cases, we may also record your comments to show that you disagree with information held about you. While Nottingham City Council tries to ensure that any personal data it holds about you is correct, there may be situations where the information it holds is no longer accurate. If this is the case, please contact the department holding the information so that any errors can be investigated and corrected. You can also make an application to the Information Compliance Team to ask for any inaccurate information to be rectified or if you think your information is incomplete you can ask for a supplementary statement to be added to give an accurate picture.

Nottingham City Council will try to ensure that all records are accurate and up to date. Please visit the following page for further information:

General Data Protection Rights

3. You can ask for your information to be deleted

You have the right to ask for information to be erased although this is not an absolute right. If your data is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it is collected you can ask for it to be erased. Again, where possible, Nottingham City Council will seek to comply with your request, but there may be some situations where it will not be able to do this, e.g. where Nottingham City Council is required to hold or process information to comply with a legal requirement.

Where your personal information has been shared with others we will do what we can to make sure they also comply with your request for erasing the information.

If you would like to make this request please visit the following page for further information:

General Data Protection Rights

4. A right to request the restriction of processing

Also, you have the right to ask Nottingham City Council to limit processing in certain circumstances. For example, where you have contested the accuracy of the information held about you or if the Council no longer needs the information, although again there are exceptions. For example, we may need to hold or use your information because we are required to do so by law.  If this request is approved this may cause delays or prevent us from delivering a service to you. For further information please contact the Information Compliance Team.

If you would like to ask Nottingham City Council to exercise this right please visit the following page for further information:

General Data Protection Rights

5. Right to object to processing of data

You have the right in some circumstances to object to Nottingham City Council processing your personal data in relation to any Council service. Where possible, Nottingham City Council will seek to comply with your request but, there may be some situations where it will not be able to do this, e.g. where Nottingham City Council is required to hold or process information to comply with a legal requirement, or where deletion of this information may cause delays or hinder the Council’s ability to provide services to you. The right to object only applies in limited circumstances and for more information please visit the following page for further information:

General Data Protection Rights

6. Right to request portability of your data to another provider

You also have the right in certain circumstances to get a copy of your information in an electronic form and re-use it with other service providers. This right only applies to information processed by automated means or information obtained by consent from you. It’s likely that data portability will not apply to most of our services. For further information please visit the following page for further information:

General Data Protection Rights

7. Rights in connection with automated decision-making including profiling

Where a computer makes decisions about you which is known as automated decision-making, you can ask for these decisions to be explained to you.

This means that you can question decisions made about you by a computer, unless it’s required for any contract that you have entered into, required by law, or you have given your agreement to this form of processing.

You also have the right to object if you are being profiled. This means that decisions are made about you based on certain things in your personal information. If you have any questions regarding automated decision-making or profiling please contact the Information Compliance Team who will be happy to assist.  To see the full table of Your Rights please click here.


Data Protection Officer

The Data Protection Officer for Nottingham City Council is Naomi Matthews and she can be contacted by clicking here and completing the form:

You can also write to the Data Protection Officer at:

Nottingham City Council
Loxley House
Station Street
Nottingham
NG2 3NG

For more information regarding data protection issues you may wish to contact the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) at casework@ico.org.uk

You can also contact the Information Commissioners office at:

Information Commissioners office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK95AF

For more information about the ICO visit:www.ico.org.uk

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