Data Protection

Great Missenden Parish Council takes the security of your information seriously. We will never pass your information on, use if for any reason other than that for which it was given to us or keep it for longer than required.

Please see our privacy notice below and our view our General Data Protection Policy here.

Data Privacy Notice

Great Missenden Parish Council has committed itself, as it must, to implement and abide by the General Data Protection Regulations, effective 25 May 2018.

Definition of terms

  • The EU General Data Protection Regulations, which apply as law in the UK as members of the EU, and which will be brought into UK law to survive Brexit once the Data Protection Bill receives Royal Assent.
  • Personal data is just about any fact about a person, down to the level of phone number. Some facts, e.g. ethnicity or religion are identified as “sensitive” requiring extra care.
  • Data processing is doing just about anything with personal data – collecting, using, storing, passing on.

Our Duties and Commitments

  • To obtain specific and informed consent for processing of personal data, whenever possible and always where no other justification for processing data exists, and to do nothing with such data for which we do not have consent or another justification under GDPR. Note, however, that that consent becomes a secondary consideration when there is e.g. a statutory reason for processing it.
  • To retain personal data only for so long as there is a justification.
  • To make all reasonable attempts to keep all personal data we hold secure.
  • To publicise and implement the rights of persons whose data we hold:
    • To know what data on them we hold and why
    • To correct any errors in their data
    • To demand that we erase it if this is legally permissible and we do not need to retain it for our legitimate interest to operate as a Parish Council
    • To know what we have done with it
    • To be informed of any breaches of data protection and to have any such properly addressed.

Communications to the Council

If you write or send an email to us (to the Council, to the Clerks or to an individual Councillor)  it is usual for what you have sent to be distributed to all Councillors and to be discussed in Council Meeting, which is in public. As a general rule, we will assume that, by writing, you have given permission for this (and to use your address data for any reply). Your name and contact details will be redacted in copies distributed to Councillors unless you have given permission for this information to be shared or there is a sound legal justification for not doing so. An indication of your geographical area or street may be appended should this be judged relevant. If our Clerks deem that the issue is sensitive, they may contact you and ask for specific permission to use your communication in this way.

If you visit a Councillor surgery, we may note down some personal data provided you give permission for this. The matter may be discussed in Council, which is a public meeting, and minuted in a public document. We will ask your permission for this also. We will make no more of your information publicly available than you agree to, and no more that is absolutely necessary (usually none). We will retain the information only as needed, and for as long as is needed for any follow-up action we undertake.

Breaches of Data Protection

The Council has a policy for handling any situation where it detects that it has used personal data without informed consent, or a complaint is made that it has done so. Copies of this policy are available here or from the Clerk. If you suspect a breach in respect of your personal data, please contact the Clerk.

Privacy Notice

Under the terms of the General Data Protection regulations:-
The Data Controller is Great Missenden Parish Councillor.
The Data Processors are the Council’s clerks.
We can only hold and use your personal data with your consent or to discharge a duty to comply with the law.
The purpose of processing your data is Council business in the service of the community.
Your personal data will be held for no longer than necessary.
You have a right to contact us and ask to know what data we hold, for any errors in the data to be corrected, or for the data to be destroyed if this is legally permissible and we do not need to retain it for our legitimate interest to operate as a Parish Council.
You have a right to complain if you think we have misused your data. In the first instance please contact the Parish Clerk at the Parish Office or on 01494 864792 or by email at clerk@greatmissendenpc.co.uk. You may also lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner