COVID-19

This privacy notice applies to the support and services the Council and its partners will be providing in response to Covid-19 and emergency planning services.

The London Borough of Hounslow is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. Through this Privacy Notice we have sought to be as transparent as possible and fully explain how your personal data is held and processed.

Under Data Protection law, the London Borough of Hounslow is a Data Controller and we are responsible for collecting and processing your personal information in order to provide a public service and meet our statutory obligation.

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or any concerns about how we process your data, please contact the Council. This privacy notice covers contact with the Council and its officers directly (face to face), through email, telephone and the website. The privacy notice will continue to be monitored and updated. You are advised to check this page from time to time.

Information we collect

When you contact us by phone, email, through the Council’s website or face to face we may need to collect personal information about you or your family so that the appropriate support and services can be provided. The information we require from you may include personal data and special categories of personal data, such as:

Contact details – title, full name, address, email address, telephone number etc.
Date of Birth / Age
Proof of identity – this will only be collected where required
Next of Kin details
NHS number or other identification numbers
Date of travel / last visit to high risk countries
Health details relating to your physical and/or mental health
Financial details for purposes of receiving and/or making payments
Information relating to your business activities
Housing information relating to your Council tenancy
Details regarding whether you hold a Drivers’ License
Details regarding whether you have a current DBS
IP Address (if using our website)

It will only be necessary to collect this type of information where it is of relevance to the support and services you require.

We use your personal data within the rules set under Data Protection law and we will only collect data that is absolutely necessary. Any information we collect about you will be strictly in accordance with the Data Protection law.

The information we receive about you can be given to us directly by you, a family member or in some case 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 national and local NHS bodies, the Office for National Statistics, NHS Digital, other local authorities and schools.

Test and Trace

The Library service will collect your details when you enter a Library in case we are contacted by the Government’s Test and Trace system. Test and Trace may contact the Library if an infected person has visited and may ask for details of other users who were at the Library at the same time as the infected person. These details will be provided to the Test and Trace service in order to comply with the Government’s requirements and protect our residents. The data collected for this purpose will be kept for 21 days and then deleted.

Further details about Test and Trace can be found at the following link:

NHS Test and Trace: How it Works

Government's Test and Trace Privacy Notice

The Council will adhere to any Government guidance.

Who do we hold information about?

We hold information about people we directly provide a service to and about people we have a responsibility for. This includes

Residents of the London Borough of Hounslow

Visitors to the London Borough of Hounslow
Local Businesses
People receiving health and care services in Hounslow
People who work for or attend school in Hounslow.
People who register to volunteer

Why we need your information (purposes of processing)

We may use new or existing information held by the Council in order to:

Exercise our statutory functions, such as:

Manage risks to public health
Control of infection
Identify and support vulnerable residents
Support local businesses and sole traders
Facilitate government support activities and grants
Preventing illness
Monitoring safety
Research and emergency planning
Analyse patterns and trends to help us create strategies and decision making.
Future epidemiological analysis

When you register as a volunteer

The Council will check the information you provide to direct you to a suitable voluntary organisation. Your details will be passed to a suitable voluntary organisation who may contact you and request further details.

Our Lawful basis for processing your information

Our lawful basis under GDPR when using your information to exercise our official functions are:

performance of a task carried out in the public interest - Article 6(1)(e)
reasons of public interest in the area of public health - Article 9(2)(i)
protect vital interests of a person – Article 6(1)(d) and 9(2)(c)
legal obligation – Article 6(1)(c)

If there is a significant threat to health of the public, for instance an outbreak of an infectious disease, the Council has the legal right to use identifiable data under:

Section 42(4) of the Statistics and Registration Service Act (2007) as amended by section 287 of the Health and Social Care Act (2012) and Regulation 3 of the Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002.

The Department of Health & Social Care has issued Notice under Regulation 3(4) of the Health Service Control of Patient Information Regulations 2002, to require local authorities to process personal and special category data to support the Secretary of State’s response to Covid-19.

Our lawful basis under GDPR when you register to volunteer are:

explicit consent – Article 6(1)(a) and 9(2)(a)

You can revoke your consent at any time by contacting the Council.

Who your information may be shared with (internally and externally)

If we are required to, we will only share your information with internal departments and other service providers, contractors and/or partner bodies, but only where it is necessary and as described above. Such as:

Public Health England
NHS
GP practices
Other Local Authorities
Local Voluntary Partners
Emergency Services
Care providers
Contracted suppliers who have been procured to provide support and services to our residents.

We will strive to ensure that any personal data in our care will be kept safe and that where your information is disclosed to a third party that they ensure to do the same.

We will not use your personal data for third party marketing purposes without your prior express consent.

How long we keep your information

We are legally required to hold some of your information to fulfil our statutory obligations. We will only retain your data for no longer than necessary for the purposes outlined above.

For any work that we undertake in response to Covid-19, we will review how long we need to keep your data after emergency measures are no longer needed and in line with any relevant guidance/requirement.

Business Intelligence, Profiling and Analysis

We may analyse your information to improve services and for the following purposes;

undertake statutory functions efficiently and effectively
service planning by understanding your needs to provide the services that you request
understanding what we can do for you and inform you of other relevant services and benefits
help us to build up a picture of how we are performing at delivering services to you and what services the people of Hounslow need
analysis of costs and spend of services we provide so that we can to ensure better and efficient use of public funds
Emergency planning.

The Council is committed to using pseudonymised or anonymised information where practical and in many cases, this will be the default position.

Transfers to third countries

All the information you provide us is held within the European Economic Area (EEA).

Data Matching and Auditing

Please click here for further information about how we carry out data matching and auditing.

Information security

We recognise that the information you provide may be sensitive and we will respect your confidentiality. We keep information about you confidential. This means we store it securely and control who has access to it. We will not store any information where we are not legally required to do so.

Click here to find out more on Information Security. On this page you will also find details regarding our website and use of cookies.

Your data protection rights

For information about your data protection rights and how to make a request, please see ‘Your rights’.

Your right to make a complaint

The Council tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate.

If you want to make a complaint you can contact us on:

Complaints Team
London Borough of Hounslow
Hounslow House
7 Bath Rd,
Hounslow,
TW3 3EB

Data Protection Officer

The Council’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted on:

InformationGovernance@hounslow.gov.uk
Information Governance Team
London Borough of Hounslow
Hounslow House
7 Bath Rd,
Hounslow,
TW3 3EB

Information Commissioner’s Office

The Information Commissioner is the UK's independent body set up to uphold information rights.

If you would like to know more about your rights under the Data Protection law, and what you should expect, visit the Information Commissioner’s website: https://ico.org.uk/

If you have any concerns regarding any privacy practices or about exercising your Data Protection rights, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office:

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

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545 745

Email: casework@ico.org.uk

We are registered as a Data Controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office and our registration number is Z5761176. You can view our registration on the Information Commissioner's website