This Privacy Notice was superseded on 04 October 2022
This version was valid from 25 May 2018 to 04 October 2022.
Please see our full Privacy Notice and the Update to Privacy Notice in response to the Coronavirus outbreak
Electoral Registration
Why are we collecting your data?
The Electoral Registration Officer is the data controller and collects personal data you provide for the purpose of registering your right to vote. You need to be registered to be able to vote in any election or referendum for which you are eligible. We have a duty to maintain a complete and accurate register throughout the year. We will only collect the personal data we need from you, in order to do this.
What is the legal basis for processing this data?
We do this in the performance of a task carried out in the public interest and the exercise of our official duty under the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 and Representation of the People Regulations 2001.
This ensures you are registered to vote in any election or referendum for which you are eligible. The law makes it compulsory to provide information to the Electoral Registration Officer for inclusion in the full register.
We keep records about potential and actual voters, citizens, candidates, election agents and staff employed at elections. These may be written down or kept on a computer.
The records may include;
- Your name, address, nationality, date of birth and contact details
- Unique identifiers such as your National Insurance Number and signatures for absent vote checking
- Scanned application forms, documentary evidence and any letters of correspondence
- Notes about any relevant circumstances that you have told us about
- Your previous or any redirected address
- The other occupants in your home
- If you are aged over 75 or under 18
- Whether you have chosen to opt out of the open version of the register
Who will your information be shared with?
The information you provide is held in the electoral register which is managed by the electoral registration officer who, using the information received, keeps two registers – the full electoral register and the open (edited) version.
The full register is published annually and is updated at various point during the year.
By law, it can only be supplied to the following people and organisations:
- British Library
- UK Statistics Authority
- Electoral Commission
- Boundary Commission for England
- Jury Summoning Bureau
- Elected Representatives (MP, MEP’s, Local Councillors)
- Police and Crime Commissioner
- Candidates standing for elections
- Local and National Parties
- The Council
- Parish and Town Councils
- Public Forces and the National Crime Agency
- Public Library or local authority archive services
- Government departments or bodies
- Credit Reference Agencies
- National Fraud Initiative
- Other Electoral Registration and returning Officers
To verify your identity, the data you provide will be processed by the Individual Electoral Registration Digital Service managed by the Cabinet Office. As part of this process your data will be shared with the Department of Work and Pensions and Cabinet Office suppliers that are data processors for the Individual Electoral Registration Digital Service. You can find more information about this at www.registertovote.service.gov.uk/register-to-vote/privacy.
We also disclose (share) your information with our software providers and printers.
We will not ordinarily send your personal data outside of the European Economic Area. However, if you are an overseas elector, we may write to you at your location e.g. to send you a postal vote.
It is a crime for anyone who has a copy of the full register to pass information from this register onto others, if they do not have a lawful reason to see it.
Anyone can inspect the full register;
- Inspection of the register will be under supervision
- They can take extracts from the register, but only by handwritten notes
- Information taken must not be used for direct marketing purposes, in accordance with data protection legislation, unless it has been published in the open (edited) version
- Anyone who fails to observe these conditions is committing a criminal offence and may be charged a penalty of up to £5,000.
The open (edited) register contains the same style of information as the full register, but less of it due to many people ‘opting out’. The open register is not used for elections or referendums. It is updated and published every month and can be sold to any person, organisation or company for a wide range of purposes. It is used by businesses and charities for checking names and address details; users of the register include direct marketing firms and also online directory firms.
You can choose whether or not to have your personal details excluded from the open version of the register; however, they will be included unless you ask for them to be removed. Removing your details from the open register will not affect your right to vote.
Elections
Why are we collecting your data?
The Returning Officer is the data controller and collects personal data supplied in preparation for elections or referenda and to support results. We will only collect the personal data required in order to do this.
What is the legal basis for processing this data?
We do this in the performance of a task carried out in the public interest and in the exercise of our official duty under the Representation of the People Act 1985 and the Representation of the People Regulations 2001.
This ensures that elections and referenda are conducted in a robust, fair and transparent way.
We use records kept by the Electoral Registration Officer about potential and actual voters. In addition we compile and use data relating to;
- Election candidates
- Voters who propose, second or subscribe candidate nomination papers
- Election, Counting and Polling Agents and their guests/partners
- ·Political Parties and their officials
- Staff employed at elections
- Contact details for polling stations and count centres
These records may be written down or on a computer.
General
How long will we hold the data for?
The Electoral Registration Officer and Returning Officer are obliged to process personal data for the preparation of the electoral register and subsequent organisation of elections and referenda. Personal details will be kept and updated in accordance with our legal obligations and in line with statutory retention periods.
Your rights
You are entitled to request a copy of any information about you that we hold. Any such requests should be made in writing.
If the information we hold about you is inaccurate you have a right to have this corrected and you have the right to request completion of incomplete data.
You have the right to request that we stop, or restrict the processing of your personal data, in certain circumstances. Where possible we will seek to comply with your request, but we may be required to hold or process information to perform our statutory functions.
If you have any questions about how your personal information is handled, please contact our Data Protection Officer via email at dpo@west-lindsey.gov.uk or via the contact details at the bottom of the privacy notice.
For independent advice about data protection, privacy, data sharing issues or if you are dissatisfied with how your personal information has been used you have a right to complain and can contact the Information Commissioner at;
Information Commissioner’s Officer
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545745 (national rate)
Visit: www.ico.org.uk
Email: casework@ico.org.uk
Contact details
West Lindsey District Council
Guildhall
Marshall’s Yard
Gainsborough
Lincolnshire
DN21 2NA
Tel: 01427 676676
Visit: www.west-lindsey.gov.uk
Email: customer.services@west-lindsey.gov.uk
Please see our full Privacy Notice and the Update to Privacy Notice in response to the Coronavirus outbreak
This Privacy Notice was superseded on 04 October 2022
This version was valid from 25 May 2018 to 04 October 2022.