What do we use the information for
The council has a ‘public sector equality duty’ to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations in the community. This includes monitoring and understanding the impact of the decisions we make on the services we provide and how these will impact on different people or groups because of a protected characteristic that they hold.
It will help us to better understand the diverse make-up of our workforce and our customer base and the profile of our communities, whether this be our customers, our citizens, our staff or our contracted service providers. It can also highlight what we do not know about the profile of our communities.
It will help us to monitor fairness and effectiveness of the services we deliver, employment practices and to develop future policies and services.
We recognise that your personal information is important to you, and we take our responsibilities for ensuring that we collect and manage it proportionately, correctly, and safely very seriously.
What information do we hold and use
It is the responsibility of any service area, within the council, that carries out monitoring to provide a clear rationale for the collection of data. Service areas may collect and process the following information:
- personal information (date of birth)
- characteristics (such as ethnicity, sex, gender identity, religion or belief, disability including the type of disability, sexual orientation, caring responsibilities)
- additional categories (Location data (including postcode), relationship status, if someone is/has experienced domestic violence, if someone is/has experienced bullying or harassment, if someone is/has experienced any form of hate crime)
Please note that the above information is only collected if it is relevant to the purposes mentioned above. Any personal data collected will not be used to identify responses and will be stored appropriately.
On what grounds do we use the information
We collect and lawfully process your personal information under the following:
- Equality Act 2010
- The Human Rights Act 1998
We process personal data on the following legal bases:
- UK GDPR Article 6(1)(c) – processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject
- UK GDPR Article 6(1)(e) - processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.
We process special category data on the following legal basis:
- UK GDPR Article 9(2)(g) (a) – processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest on the basis of Section 10(3) and para 8 (equality of opportunity or treatment), Part 2 Schedule 1, Data Protection Act 2018
How do we collect this information
We may collect information in the following ways:
- face to face
- paper, electronic (email) or online forms
- over the phone
Please note that the above is not an exhaustive list and it is down to individual service areas how information is collected.
Who do we share your information with
Equality data (i.e. anonymous data on numbers or percentages relating to each protected characteristic) is captured corporately, in order to comply with our legal obligations, under the Equality Act 2010 and in particular the Public Sector Equality Duty. There are no personal identifiers contained within the data published.
Needs assessments are often carried out in partnership with other public sector bodies. This is made clear in any surveys/consultations that are a part of this assessment process. Therefore, we may disclose your information to others, but only where this is necessary either to comply with our legal obligations or as permitted by Data Protection legislation. We may share it with other public service bodies including the NHS, social care, the police, and other local authorities.
The reasons why we may share your data with other public bodies are as follows:
- to review and improve our performance and delivery of services
- for the prevention and or detection of crime
- where necessary to protect individuals from the risk of harm or injury
- where otherwise permitted by Data Protection legislation
We will only disclose your sensitive or confidential information, such as medical details to a third party, if we are legally required to do so, or where we have good reason to believe that failing to share the information would put you or someone else at risk of harm.
We will not pass your personal information to external organisations for marketing or sales purposes or for any commercial use without your prior expressed consent.
How long do we store it and is it secure?
There are retention schedules in place to ensure that information is only held for as long as it is needed. We will not keep your information for longer than is required by law. Your information will be disposed of in a controlled and secure manner in accordance with the council’s Records Retention and Deletion Policy. The council’s IT security and confidentiality policies ensure that your information is protected and accessed only by staff who is authorised to do so.
For information on how long your information will be held visit the retention schedule page.
Is your personal data processed overseas
We do not store any information relating to equality information overseas.
What rights do you have
The rights that you have depend upon the grounds upon which we collected your information. All of the rights you could have outlined in the data protection rights page.
In most cases, people who have been involved with equalities monitoring will have the following rights:
- the right of access - you are entitled to see the information the service holds about you
- the right to rectification - we will amend the information accordingly, if any of the information that the service holds about you is incorrect
- the right to restrict processing - you may wish to limit how we use your data
- the right to object - in addition to the right to limit the use of your data, you also have a right to object to the use of your data for certain actions
- the right to erasure/right to be forgotten - in certain circumstances, you may be able to ask for some of the information we hold to be deleted. The service has determined that all requests to permanently delete a service user record will be dealt with on an individual basis.
To exercise any of your above rights, please visit the data protection rights pages for more information.
Where can I find out more
If you would like to know more about how the council uses information, your rights or have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, we request that you raise your concern with us in the first instance; contact details are available on the council’s general privacy information page.
Alternatively, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest and they handle public concerns regarding organisations information rights practices.
The Data Protection Officer
If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice or your information rights, please contact:
Aaron Linden
Head of Information Management and Governance - Data Protection Officer
Leeds City Council
Merrion House
110 Merrion Way
Leeds
LS2 8BB
DPO@leeds.gov.uk
When was this privacy notice last updated?
We will continually review and update this privacy notice to reflect any changes in our services, feedback from customers, and to comply with any changes in the law. This privacy notice was last updated 28 September 2023.
