The Returning Officer Data Protection and Privacy Notice

In situations where we have no legal obligation to process certain personal data you will have provided us with consent to use that personal information, for example an email address.  In these circumstances you have the right to amend or withdraw your consent at any time.

If you wish to exercise this right, please contact elections@tendringdc.gov.uk or 01255 686566.

• Name(s)
• Current address(es) 
• Previous address(es)
• Alternative postal address
• Date of Birth (DOB) 
• Gender
• Elector number
• Method of voting (polling station, postal, proxy or postal proxy)
• Voting franchise (for example, local elections only) 
• Signature or information indicating why you are unable to sign in a consistent manner
• Whether you voted in a particular election/referendum, the method by which your vote was cast (for example, at a polling station or by post) but not how or for whom you voted. 
• If you are a proxy voter, details of your appointed proxy 
• If you have been appointed as a proxy to vote on another elector’s behalf.
• Candidate’s description – registered political party
• Candidate’s description – no party affiliation    
• Description and address of land/ premises owned or rented by candidate (Local Government Election)
• Candidate’s place of work and employer (Local Government Election)
• Parliamentary Constituency or if address outside the UK, the Country a candidate resides in (UK Parliamentary election) 
• Whether you are a polling station voter with a disability who is assisted by a companion
• Expenditure incurred or donations received as declared on Return of Candidate’s Spending
• If you are proposing, seconding or assenting to the nomination of a Candidate
• If you have acted as a witness to a Candidate’s consent to nomination
• If you are designated as a Candidate’s guest at a verification or count

Your details will be kept in accordance with our legal obligations and published retention periods.  Please see the Returning Officer’s Retention Policy for further details.

Returning Officer's retention policy

The verification of postal voters personal identifiers (date of birth and signature) is carried out using specialist scanning software.  Where these cannot be automatically verified, manual intervention is conducted by a member of the Returning Officer’s staff.

Data Protection law gives you a number of legal rights.  These are:-

The right of access

You can ask the Council (or any organisation) for a copy of the personal information it holds or processes relating to you. We should provide the information within 1 month.  If there is a great deal of information or it is difficult to identify and retrieve then we can apply a time extension and let you know.

The right to rectification

Everyone is entitled to have their own personal data rectified / changed if it is inaccurate or incomplete.  If an organisation has shared the personal data in question with anyone then it must also take all reasonable steps to inform them of the change.  You will be asked to provide evidence of your identity and the correction so that the organisation can ensure your privacy rights are protected.

The right to erasure

The right to erasure can sometimes be referred to as ‘the right to be forgotten’.  However this is not an absolute right.  You can only request the deletion or removal of personal data where there is no compelling reason for an organisation to keep it.  Where the organisation has a statutory obligation or a legally justifiable reason to keep the information they must let you know.

The right to restrict processing

In some circumstances you have a right to restrict what processing an organisation carries out or ask that they stop processing your personal data.  When processing is restricted, the organisation may continue to store your data but not to process it further.  However this right cannot overrule any legal obligation placed on the organisation to continue processing your personal information.

The right to data portability

Following a request for disclosure of your data, you have the right to ask for your information in a digital format so that you can reuse it for other purposes.  For example, data portability could be used to upload your information to a third party price comparison website to compare and identify best value for something like utilities or mobile phone use.  It is unlikely that data portability will apply to most of the services you receive from the Council.

The right to object

Everyone has the right to object to the processing of their data in limited circumstances.

However you can only object based on “grounds relating to your particular situation”.  For example you may need to maintain a higher level of security due to the type of job you have.  In these situations an organisation must stop processing your personal data unless it can demonstrate compelling grounds for the processing, which override your interests, rights and freedoms or where processing is for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

Rights related to automated decision making and profiling

You have a right to request that decisions based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which may produce a legal effect or affect them significantly, to have some form of human input so they are not automatically generated by a computer.

This right is in place to ensure that potentially damaging decisions are not taken without some form of human intervention. This right also applies to ‘profiling’.

However, this Right will not apply if the decision:

• is necessary for entering into, or performance of, a contract between you and the data controller (the Council)
• is authorised by law, or
• is based on your explicit consent

Organisations are required to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your rights, freedoms and legitimate interests and you can ask to have any computer-made decisions explained to you.

If you need to make a complaint about how your personal information is being used by the Returning Officer, please provide as much information as possible so that we can conduct an investigation.

If you wish to authorise someone to act on your behalf – this could be another individual or an organisation, such as your legal representative or Citizens Advice, it is important that you make your wishes clear and provide a form of authority to them so that we know they are acting under your instruction.

Please send your requests to:

The Data Protection Officer
The Returning Officer - Tendring District Council
Town Hall
Station Road
Clacton on Sea
Essex CO15 1SE

RO-DPOfficer@tendringdc.gov.uk

If you need to request a correction to inaccurate information, please provide as much information as possible so that we can consider your request.

If you wish to appoint someone to act on your behalf – this could be another individual or an organisation, such as your legal representative or Citizens Advice, it is important that you make your wishes clear and provide a form of authority to them so that we know they are acting under your instruction.

Please send your requests to :-

The Returning Officer – Tendring Electoral Area
Town Hall
Station Road
Clacton on Sea
Essex CO15 1SE
elections@tendringdc.gov.uk
01255 686566

The Right of Data Portability is not relevant to this function.