Legal Services

The proper handling of personal information by Carmarthenshire County Council is very important to the delivery of our services and maintaining public confidence.

Personal data is any information that relates to a person who can be directly or indirectly identified from the information. The terms ‘information’ and ‘personal data’ are used throughout this privacy notice and have the same meaning.

To ensure that the Council treats personal information correctly, we seek to adhere in full to the requirements of Data Protection legislation.

This privacy notice has therefore been produced to explain as clearly as possible what we do with your personal data.

1. The purpose for which we use your personal data

We use the information we collect and store for the following purposes:

  • To provide legal advice to Council members and officers and to external bodies to which we also provide Legal advice, such as the Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Panel
  • To conduct legal proceedings on behalf of the Council before courts and tribunals
  • To conduct other legal transactions on behalf of the Council such as Property sales and transfers

The lawful basis for the processing this information is:

  • Article 6.1(c) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation – where there is a statutory obligation imposed on the Council to do something, or
  • Article 6.1(e) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation - where the Council is performing a task in the public interest, or in the exercise of the Council's official authority.

We collect and use information about your health and other special category (sensitive) personal data where we need to do so for the purposes outlined above.

Information about criminal convictions is also processed under the control of official authority, where this is necessary for the purposes set out above.

2. What type of information do we use?

We collect the following types of personal data to deliver this service:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Date of birth
  • Information about gender or gender identification
  • Unique reference numbers
  • Telephone numbers
  • Email addresses
  • Bank/payment details
  • Family composition
  • Your social circumstances
  • Your financial circumstances
  • Employment and education details
  • Information about housing needs
  • Images/photographs
  • Vehicle Registration numbers

Where relevant, we use the following types of sensitive personal data (known as special category data):

  • Information about your health
  • Race or ethnic origin
  • Political opinions
  • Religious or philosophical beliefs
  • Trade union membership
  • Information about your sexual life or your sexual orientation
  • Convictions and criminal offences

3. Do we use information received from other sources?

To provide this service, we collect personal data directly from you but we also obtain information about you from the following sources:

  • All other Council departments for which we provide legals services
  • The Courts and Tribunals
  • Other local authorities
  • The UK and Welsh Governments and national governmental agencies
  • The Police and National Health Service
  • Third sector organisations such as Charities and Community groups
  • Other private individuals, private sector businesses and their legal representatives.

4. Transferring your information abroad

We use Microsoft Office 365 to process all of our electronic documents under the terms of a strict agreement, which safeguards your information. This personal data is hosted on servers outside of the UK, but only in EU countries which are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation.

5. Who has access to your information?

We share your personal data only when there is a need for us to do so.  When we do this, we provide the minimum amount of information that is necessary in each case to the following recipients:

  • Members and Officers of the Council
  • External legal professionals who work for us
  • Courts and Tribunals
  • UK and Welsh Governments
  • Other local authorities
  • The Police and National Health service
  • Third sector organisations such as Charities and Community groups
  • Other private individuals, private sector businesses and their legal representatives

There are also other specific situations where we may be required to disclose information about you, such as:

  • Where we are required to provide the information by law
  • Where disclosing the information is required to prevent or detect a crime
  • Where disclosure is in the vital interests of the person concerned

6. How long we will keep your information

We will keep your information for as long as necessary in accordance with the Council’s Retention Guidelines

7. Your Data Protection rights

You have the right to:

  • Obtain access to the personal data that Carmarthenshire Council is processing about you
  • Have any inaccurate or incomplete information rectified (corrected)
  • Withdraw your consent to processing, where this is the only basis for the processing
  • Make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the independent body in the UK which protects information rights

In some circumstances, you may have the right to:

  • Object to the processing of your personal information
  • The erasure of your personal data
  • Restrict the processing of your personal information
  • Data portability

8. Contact details

For more information regarding this privacy notice and your rights, please contact:

Data Protection Officer
Carmarthenshire County Council
County Hall
Carmarthen
SA31 1JP

Email: dataprotection@carmarthenshire.gov.uk

Contact details for the Information Commissioner’s Office along with further guidance on Data Protection legislation can be found on the ICO website .

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