Privacy Notice for complaints against councillors

Unless otherwise agreed with you, we will only collect the minimum personal data required to deliver the service, which includes your name, contact details, details of the complaint and names of any third parties involved in the complaint. We do not ask you for any special category personal information, or information relating to criminal convictions or offences but acknowledge that this may be relevant to the complaint.

We use this personal data in order to conduct the investigation into your complaint.

We have a legal obligation under s28(6) the Localism Act 2011, to have arrangements in place under which allegations about councillors and co-opted members can be investigated, and under which decisions on allegations can be made.

We collect and process information about you in line with our statutory duty under s28(6) the Localism Act 2011, and in accordance with Article 6(1)(c) of UK GDPR.

We process any special category data you may choose to provide as part of your complaint in accordance with Article 9(2)(a) of UK GDPR.

We will hold the information about you securely, and for no longer than is reasonably necessary. The information will form part of the complaint file and will be retained for six years, or until the councillor leaves office - whichever comes first – after which it will be deleted.

The information provided may be shared with some or all of the following depending on the nature of the complaint: the Standards Committee, the Standards Hearing Panel, the Monitoring Officer, Deputy Monitoring Officer, Police, council officers where it is necessary to consult them about the complaint, the relevant parish clerk, co-opted members of the Standards Committee, “independent persons” appointed pursuant to section 28(7) of the Localism Act 2011, and any appointed independent investigators, who have demonstrated that they have a lawful and legitimate interest in the information, in accordance with the processes stipulated in the Localism Act. At no point is your data shared or processed outside of the UK. Your name only and details of the complaint will be shared with the councillor who is the subject of your complaint.

We may lawfully disclose information to public sector agencies to prevent or detect fraud or other crime, or to support the national fraud initiatives and protect public funds under the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014. Under the conditions of the Digital Economy Act 2017, we may also share personal data provided to us with other public authorities as defined in the Act, for the purposes of fraud or crime detection or prevention, to recover monies owed to us, to improve public service delivery, or for statistical research. We do not share the information with other organisations for commercial purposes.

We collect and process information about you in line with our statutory duty under s28(6) the Localism Act 2011. This is in order to process your complaint. We do not share personal information about you with anyone else without consent unless the law and our policies allow us to do so.

If you would like further information about how we manage your data, please see the Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council Privacy Statement.

You have the right to see the personal data we process about you, as well as the right of rectification and restriction (to destruction of records only). For details of how to make such a request, please see the information on our Privacy Statement website under the “Your rights” section.

If you would like further information about this privacy notice email the Monitoring Officer.

If you have any worries or questions about how your personal data is handled, please contact the Data Protection Officer at DPO@basingstoke.gov.uk