Privacy Policy

Please note that this privacy notice may be reviewed and updated from time to time in line with legislative changes, feedback from customers, changes in services, etc. You are therefore advised to periodically visit the Councils website to be informed of how Telford & Wrekin Council is protecting your personal information.

By visiting this website you agree to accept the terms of use detailed on this page. Please be aware that these may change with time and any such changes will be posted on this page.

On this website, “Our”, “Us” or “We” means Telford & Wrekin Council.

Disclaimer

While every care has been taken in the compilation of this information, Telford & Wrekin Council will not be held responsible for any loss, damage or inconvenience caused as a result of inaccuracy or error within these pages. We reserve the right to change any data or format of any page of the website without notice.

Information on this website is provided without any representation or endorsement made and without warranty of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, compatibility, security and accuracy.

External links

Telford & Wrekin Council does not endorse any external linked websites and is not responsible for their content. Telford & Wrekin Council does not provide quality control of external links; the inclusion of any company's name within the pages should not be construed as a recommendation of that company's products and/or services.

We cannot guarantee that these links will work all of the time and have no control over the availability of the linked pages.

Data quality

Telford & Wrekin Council is committed to the highest standards of quality in respect to information.

If you are aware that there are any errors in the information provided please notify us using our online form.

Information about Telford & Wrekin Council and our website

Our privacy notice covers Telford & Wrekin Council and its website. Should you have any queries about the website, you can contact us using our online form.

Accessing Telford & Wrekin Council's website

You can access our website home page and browse our website without disclosing your personal data to obtain information about Telford & Wrekin Council services and activities.

Collecting information automatically

In order that we can improve our online services we will collect information about your visits to www.telford.gov.uk. These statistics do not contain personal data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Use of cookies

The Council uses cookies on this website. A cookie is a small piece of information stored by your web browser (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox) on your computer (or laptop, phone, etc.) when you use our website. Cookies are used to provide customised content, access to the full functionality of the website and information on the use of the website. By using our website, you agree that we can place cookies on your computer.

The cookies our website uses do not store any personal information about you and cannot be used to identify any particular user. All information about how you used our website is collected anonymously.

You can view more information about the purpose of cookies on this website, including a full list of the cookies used, on our cookies page.

You can modify your cookie settings to either accept all cookies, to be notified when a cookie is set or to reject all cookies. However, you should be aware that if cookies are rejected you will not be able to use some of the online services provided by this website.

Confidentiality/security

All the personal data stored on this website is recorded in a secure database.

All our employees and data processors, who have access to, and areas associated with the processing of personal data, are obliged to respect the confidentiality of our visitors' personal data.

We ensure that your personal data will not be disclosed to government institutions and authorities except if required by law or other regulation.

Any payment or financial information is transmitted using 128bit Encryption using THWATE SSL certification.

Copyright

All material on this website, including text and graphics, is copyright to Telford & Wrekin Council unless otherwise stated.

The text and graphic content of this website may be used, printed and distributed only under the following conditions:

the content of the website is used for non-commercial purposes only,

the content is not modified.

User responsibilities

You should only use this website for lawful purposes, and in a manner that does not infringe the rights of, or restrict or inhibit the use and enjoyment of, this website by any third party. Such restriction or inhibition includes, without limitation, conduct which is unlawful or which may harass or cause distress or inconvenience to any person, or the transmission of obscene or offensive content within this website.

You should not post or include any harmful or illegal material when using this website. If you misuse this website we may take action to prevent misuse.

Virus protection

We make every effort to check and test material at all stages of production, however you must take your own precautions to ensure that the process which you employ for accessing this website does not expose you to the risk of viruses, malicious computer code or other forms of interference which may damage your own computer system.

We do not accept any responsibility for any loss, disruption or damage to your data or your computer system which may occur whilst using material derived from this website.

Viruses, hacking and other offences

Our website must not be misused by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. Attempts should not be made to gain unauthorised access to our website, the server on which our website is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our website. Our website must not be attacked via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack.

By acting contrary to the above, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them.

Governing law

Any disputes relating to or arising from the Telford & Wrekin Council website shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales and shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

Adverts on the Council website

The Council Advertising Network (CAN) is responsible for delivering advertising on the Telford & Wrekin Council website. Please take a moment to read their privacy policy which includes cookie information and details on how to opt out.

Personal information

Telford & Wrekin Council processes a significant amount of information (including personal data) about the community it serves to enable services to be provided efficiently and effectively.

The Council recognises its responsibility regarding the personal information it holds about individuals. It implements measures to ensure the personal information it collects is done so correctly and safely.

Any personal information provided will only be used by the Council, partners and service providers. It will not be disclosed unless we are obliged or permitted to do so by law.

To understand what is classed as personal information or to lodge a complaint about how your personal data has been processed please visit the Information Commissioners Office website. To view the Information Commissioners Office current campaign on privacy please visit ICO Your Data Matters.

How the Council uses your personal information

When deciding what personal data to collect and process the Council will ensure that it will:

only collect personal information that is necessary

securely hold personal information

securely delete personal information when it is no longer required or we are required to do so by law

consider privacy issues when processing

be open with individuals about the use of their information

provide training to Council staff who handle personal information.

The Council uses your personal information in compliance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) or equivalent UK legislation. We will process your personal information for the following purposes:

for the purpose to which you provided the information, e.g. processing information given on a benefit claim for the purpose of processing your benefit claim

to allow the Council to be able to communicate and provide services appropriate to your needs, e.g. providing access arrangements if a customer has mobility issues

to ensure the Council meets its legal requirements

where necessary to protect individuals from harm or injury

where necessary for the Council’s enforcement functions, e.g. licencing, planning enforcement, etc

financial transactions including grants, payments and benefits.

The Council has a Corporate Information Retention Schedule which details how long certain pieces of information are kept for before they are securely destroyed.

Your rights

Telford & Wrekin Council complies with the legal requirements of the GDPR (or equivalent UK legislation) in relation to the processing of personal information.

Please contact the Council’s Data Protection Officer IG@telford.gov.uk or telephone 01952 382537 if you have any concerns about how your personal information is being processed.

Under the GDPR you are legally entitled to request access to any records held by the Council about you or your children. Telford & Wrekin will endeavour to comply with your request but there may be some reasons where we will not be able to comply in full, e.g. to comply with the law.

Please visit our Data Protection page for more information on this or alternatively visit the Information Commissioners Office website for information or to make a complaint.

Telford & Wrekin Council will not pass your personal information to any third parties without your consent unless it is required/allowed to do so by law. You have the right to revoke this consent at any point in the future. When the Council collects your consent it will inform you how this can also be revoked at any time.

GDPR (or equivalent UK legislation) provides individuals with a number of rights. For more information on these rights please access the ICO website.

Equalities

Telford & Wrekin Council may use information about your gender, ethnic background, first language, sexual orientation and age to:

compile statistical data about the population of Telford and Wrekin

assess the take up of Council services by various groups

assist in complying with its legal obligations

assist the council in planning the provision of future services

allow the Council to provide sufficient assistance where required, e.g. to provide translation services, use of induction hearing loop, etc.

Statistical use of this equalities data will not identify a specific individual or have any negative impact on an individual’s entitlement to Council services.

Data matching and sharing

While providing services to customers, Telford & Wrekin Council is also required by law to:

make adequate provisions for safeguarding

protect the public purse and/or minimise waste

prevent and/or detect potential, fraud, bribery and crime

make adequate provision for auditing

carry out emergency response planning.

We may share information internally, but we may also share information with other parties in order to fulfil our legal obligations such as HM Revenues and Customs, Police, Cabinet Office, etc. This information could include the following:

Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB)

Blue Badges

Council Employee Payroll

Council Tax

Electoral Register

Enforcement, Trading Standards and Environmental Health

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support

Insurance

Investigations into fraud/abuse

Leisure

Libraries

Licencing

Property, Planning, Building Regulations and Business Rates

Other Council records held in respect to one or more of the above.

The Council has a legal obligation to participate in the Cabinet Office National Fraud Initiative which requires us to pass data to the Cabinet Office to allow them to undertake data matching for fraud prevention/detection purposes. For more on this please access our Data Matching page.

There are occasions where the Council is required to share sensitive personal information to third parties. We will only do this with your explicit consent or where we are required to do so by law. Specific areas where sensitive personal information could be shared are detailed below.

Public Health

The Council has a legal responsibility to provide Public Health Services. In order to provide these services the Council may need to process and share personal sensitive information. This will be processed in accordance with GDPR (or equivalent UK legislation).

Child Protection – Information Sharing (CP-IS) Project

This is Department of Health policy which looks to improve services for the protection of children who have previously been identified as vulnerable.

CP-IS provides health professionals with prompt access to key social care information that can help assess whether a child is at risk.

The project will link the IT systems of NHS unscheduled care to those used by Council Safeguarding teams, so that information can be shared about three specific categories of child:

those with a child protection plan

those classed as looked after, i.e. children with full/interim care orders or voluntary agreements

any pregnant woman whose unborn child has a pre-birth protection plan.

Further details can be found by visiting the Health & Social Care Information Centre website.

Family Connect

Telford & Wrekin Council and its partners, including Health and the Police Service, have developed a solution to improve safeguarding of children within the borough. Visit the Family Connect Service Directory for more information on Family Connect services.

Partners, as part of Family Connect, will share information to improve services aimed at preventing, detecting and managing situations where children maybe at harm.

Strengthening Families

Telford & Wrekin Council is committed to supporting the Governments Troubled Families Programme, for more information see the related Privacy Notice.