- How we use your data
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The insurance section at Stoke-on-Trent City Council, as data controller, will deal with the personal information you have provided to us in order to make your claim and meet our legal and regulatory obligations.
This notice should be read by the person making the claim so ensure that this notice is brought to their attention. In this notice the words 'you', 'your' and 'yours' refer to the person making the claim.
Data protection law provides you with certain rights, but not all of these rights will be available to you in all situations. Where we are under a legal duty to use data for a particular purpose you will not have the right to prevent it being used in that way:
- you can ask to see the information we hold about you
- you can ask what is being done with the information we hold about you
- you can ask to have some of the data we hold about you deleted
- you can ask us to review a decision made about you by a computer, and ask for a new decision to be made by a person
- you can ask us to stop processing the data we hold about you
- you can ask us to make changes to data about you that you believe is inaccurate
- in some circumstances you can ask us to help you move your information to another organisation
- you can ask us to restrict or limit what we do with your data, for example if you believe the data we hold is inaccurate, or if you believe the processing in unlawful
We will collect and process the personal information that you provide to us by phone, email, letter or completed claim forms. We also collect personal information from your appointed agent such as your solicitor or from other sources, for verification purposes, such as other councils departments, a car repair garage or other insurance companies and information you have volunteered to be in the public domain.
We will only collect the personal information we require to fulfil our legal requirements unless you consent to provide additional information. The type of personal information we may collect includes basic personal information (such as name, address and date of birth), occupation and financial details, confidential health information, claims and convictions information and, where you have requested other individuals be included in the arrangement, personal information about those individuals.
We will only collect and use your personal information:
- where the processing is necessary in connection with the processing of your claim
- to meet our legal or regulatory obligations
- where it is in our 'legitimate interests' to do so
It is in our legitimate interests to collect your personal information as it provides us with the information that we need to provide our services to you more effectively. We will always ensure we keep the amount of information collected and the extent of any processing to the absolute minimum to meet this legitimate interest.
Examples of the purposes for which we will collect and use your personal information are:
- to identify you when you contact us
- to deal with, investigate and assess your claim
- for the prevention and detection of fraud
- for the assessment or collection of any tax or dut
Where necessary, we will share the personal information you gave us for the purpose of processing your claim and in accordance with our legal obligations, with the types of organisations listed below:
- other areas of the council
- our insurers
- our external loss adjusters or solicitors
- the Cabinet Office
The personal information we collect from you will be shared with fraud prevention agencies who will use it to prevent fraud and money-laundering and to verify your identity.
If fraud is detected, you could be refused certain services, finance, or employment.
Further details of how your information will be used by us and these fraud prevention agencies, and your data protection rights, can be found on the CIFAS website.
We will retain and process your personal information for as long as necessary to meet the purposes for which it was originally collected. These periods of time are subject to legal, tax and regulatory requirements or to enable us to manage our business.
If you do not provide us with your personal information we will not be able to process your claim.
- Who to contact if you have questions
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If you wish to contact us in relation to any of your information rights, email foi@stoke.gov.uk or write to Information Rights Team, Floor 2, Civic Centre, Glebe Street, Stoke-on-Trent ST4 1HH.
Complete the online form
If you wish to complain about how your personal information has been handled by Stoke-on-Trent City Council, contact the information rights team in the first instance using the details above. If you are not satisfied you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, or call 03031231113