Flood grant applications - privacy notice

Reigate & Banstead Borough Council, Flood Recovery Grants, Privacy Notice

How we handle your information

Everyone working for the Reigate & Banstead Borough Council (RBBC) has a legal duty to keep and process information about you in accordance with the law.

This document explains why we ask for your personal information, how that information will be used and how you can access your records.

Why is information recorded about me?

When you contact us by phone, email or through the Council’s website we may need to collect personal information about you and about how you have been affected by the flooding following a Storm in order to assess your claim.

We will only use the information provided by you for the purposes of administering Flood Recovery Grants. The council may also use your personal information (though not your date of birth) in order to manage and better understand impact of the severe weather and flood recovery schemes.  This may include using or sharing your data for statistical or reporting purposes. Data will always be anonymised where possible.

These records may be written down (manual records) or kept on a computer (electronic records).

Processing your information is necessary under Article 6(1)(e) the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of our official authority. Specifically, under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 we have a duty to assess, plan and advise in respect of an event or situation which threatens serious damage to human welfare.

These records may include:

• Basic details about you, for example, name, address, email and telephone contact details.
• Bank account details (for payment purposes).
• Details of your flood insurance cover, including policy number.
• Contact we have had with you, for example, appointments & letters of correspondence, notes and reports about your relevant circumstances.
• Housing information relating to your Council Tax account.
• IP address (if using our website).
• The nature of how the flood has affected your home or business, including supporting documentary evidence (photographs, videos, etc.)

We use your personal data within the rules set under Data Protection law and we will only collect data that is absolutely necessary. The information we receive about you can be given to us directly by you, a family member or in some cases can be shared with us by another organisation due to the Council having a role in a service they are providing. This includes organisations such as Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC), Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), and the Department for Business and Trade, all of whom are providing the Grant. Other checks for eligibility may be made by use of information held within Council Tax and Business Rates departments. The council may also check the information you provide against the records that are held by the other authorities.

Who has access to your personal data?

If you apply for the Property Flood Resilience Scheme, we will share your information with Surrey County Council who are managing the Scheme.

For all grants, we may also need to share information with the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC), Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), and the Department for Business and Trade, all of whom are providing the Grant, but will only share the information for the purpose of administering the Grant or a purpose which is compatible with the reason your information was provided, including the auditing of claims.

We will ensure that any personal data in our care will be kept safe and that where your information is disclosed to a third party, we will ensure that the purpose of the sharing is clearly defined, for example they do the same via a contract or information sharing agreement.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our processors to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified reasons and in accordance with our instructions and data protection laws.

They are also obliged to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security of data. We will not use your personal data for third party marketing purposes without your prior express consent. The organisation will not transfer your data to countries outside the European Economic Area.

How long for?

We will keep data for a minimum period of 7 years as required by the terms of the grants.  Some information has to be retained for legal reasons and information can be kept longer to understand decisions that have been made.

Occasions when your information needs to be disclosed (shared) include:

•  where the health and safety of others is at risk,
•  when the law requires us to pass on information under special circumstances.
• For the administration of the Property Flood Resilience Scheme, your data will be passed onto Surrey County Council as the administering authority.

Anyone who receives information from us has a legal duty to keep it confidential

Can I see my records?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) allows you to find out what information is held about you, on paper and computer records. This is known as ‘right of subject access’ and applies to your Flood Risk Management records along with all other personal records. If you wish to see a copy of your records, you should submit a Subject Access Request which is available on our website or by contacting the Data Protection Officer directly.

You are entitled to receive a copy of your records free of charge, within a month.

In certain circumstances access to your records may be limited, for example, if the records you have asked for contain information relating to another person.

Do I have other rights?

Data Protection laws gives you the right:

• To be informed why, where and how we use your information.
• To ask for access to your information
• To ask for information to be corrected if inaccurate or incomplete.
• To ask for your information to be deleted or removed where there is no need for us to continue processing it.
• To ask us to restrict the use of your information.
• To ask us to copy or transfer your information from one IT system to another in a safe and secure way, without impacting the quality of the information.
• To object to how your information is used.
• To challenge any decisions made without human intervention (automated decision
• making).
• To lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office whose contact details are
• If our processing is based upon your consent, to withdraw your consent.

Further information

If you would like to know more about how we use your information, or if for any reason you do not wish to have your information used in any of the ways described in this notice, please tell us. Please contact:

Data Protection Officer: Data.protection@reigate-banstead.gov.uk

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you are unhappy with the way we process your data. Details can be found on the ICO website, or you may write to the ICO at the following address:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number

Email: casework@ico.org.uk