Privacy notice for Petitions

What do we use the information for?

The committee management and overview and scrutiny teams collect, process and hold your personal information in order to: 

• ascertain that the petition is valid in accordance with the council's constitution
• determine how to proceed with the petition
• provide the petition to the relevant service for action and/or response
• provide the petition to the relevant Council committee for debate
• correspond with the petition organiser and to keep them updated
• publish significant petitions (with more than 500 signatures) on the council website.

We also use information to improve our services so that they are more appropriate to people’s requirements. 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?

We collect and process the following information:

• Personal information (including full name, residential address) 
• Contact details (such as email address, telephone number).

On what grounds do we use the information?

The committee management and overview and scrutiny teams collect and lawfully process your personal information under the following: 

• Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009

We process personal data for the following reasons:

• GDPR Article 6(1)(a) – the data subject has given consent to the processing of is or her personal data for one or more specific purposes
• GDPR Article 6(1)(c) – processing is necessary for compliance with legal obligation to which the East Riding of Yorkshire Council is subject
• GDPR Article 6(1)(e) – processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.

How do we collect this information?

We may collect information in the following ways: 

• Paper, electronic or online forms
• Email
• Telephone
• Face to face, with one of our employees, or one of our partners.

Who we share your information with?

The information you provide is disclosed to electoral services department of the council and the name of the lead petitioner will appear in reports published on the council’s website.

We will not pass you 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?

The democratic services have a retention schedule 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 to by law.  Your information will be disposed of in a controlled and secure manner in accordance with the council’s Records Management and Data Quality Policy. The council’s IT security and confidentiality policies ensure that your information is protected, and accessed only by staff directly involved in your request.

For information on how long your information will be held, visit the retention page.

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 are outlined on the data protection rights page.

In most cases, people 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 information the service holds about you is incorrect    
• The right to restrict processing - you may wish 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 page 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 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. 

Alternatively, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (external website) 

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 on 25 January 2021.