Worcestershire County Council will process personal data to change or improve our services and ensure that these services are accessible to all. 

This may include:

• the collection and analysis of personal and special category data assists us in meeting and complying with our Public Sector Equality Duty under the Equality Act 2010
• to contact you regarding your response or related matters
• to produce anonymous statistical data
• to allow us to take positive action in increasing and understanding engagement and participation levels to our consultations

The service processes personal data which is relevant to our Public Sector Equality Duty, including, but is not limited to, the following personal data:

• name
• email address
• IP address
• location/postcode/ward area
• age
• marital status
• gender
• sex
• caring responsibilities
• whether a care leaver

Personal data you disclose to us in free-text answers to consultation questions
We may also process some special category (sensitive) data, which is relevant to individual cases and may include some of the following but is not limited to:

• disability status
• ethnic group
• sexual orientation
• pregnancy status
• religion

The legal bases for processing this personal data are:

• Legal Obligation (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(c) – processing is necessary to comply with the law, specifically:
  • Equality Act 2010
• Public task (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 our official authority under legislation

The special category condition for processing is:

• Explicit Consent (UK GDPR Article 9(2)(a)) - any special category personal data that individuals may provide in their comments, applications and communications will be processed on the basis of explicit consent as the individual has elected to provide this information
• Substantial public interest (UK GDPR Article 9(2)(g)) - we rely on the ‘equality of opportunity or treatment’ condition from Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018. This will help us maintain equal opportunities best practice and identify and address barriers to diversity, equity and inclusion. As a local authority, we comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty. We ask these monitoring questions so we can better understand the community we serve, and importantly who we engage with through our consultations and engagement, and importantly who is not engaged or participating, in order for us to take positive action or steps to increase and improve representative involvement. The questions are aligned with those asked in the 2021 National Census, which will allow us to comparatively view data and make sure we are able to provide an equitable, fair and inclusive service for those we work with and deliver services to. No identifiable information is kept or shared and all information collected is anonymised. You will always have the option to refuse to provide personal information and can select ‘prefer not to say’ in all or any category

We may need to share the personal information you have given to us or we’ve collected about you with partner organisations where relevant to the individual case or matter.

Information will only ever be shared when it is strictly necessary to help us provide effective services and you may have the right to refuse. We will not pass it onto any other parties unless required to do so by law or in all reasonable circumstances the disclosure is fair and warranted for the purposes of processing or subject to a data protection exemption.

We have specific data sharing agreements in place with local agencies and sometimes the law requires that we may have to pass your details on to a third party, for example, to prevent crime.

Records created as part of these consultations will be held by the relevant service for as long as:

• it is needed for the purposes of the consultation
• the law requires us to

More information about our retention periods can be found in our summary Disposal Schedule.

Please note stated retention periods may be subject to any legal holds imposed under the Inquiries Act 2005 that may concern the information and override standard retention periods.

You are entitled to a copy, or a description, of the personal data we hold that relates to you, subject to lawful restrictions. Please go to our Make a Data Protection Request webpage to find out how to make a request.

You may be entitled to rectification, restriction, objection, and erasure of your personal information depending on the service and legal basis. Please in the first instance contact dataprotection@worcestershire.gov.uk or by phone 01905 763 763.

Please see our overarching Privacy Notice for further contact details and if you have a complaint about your information rights.