Who we are:
Dundee City Council is a local authority established under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. Our head office is located at 21 City Square, Dundee, DD1 3BY and you can contact our Data Protection Officer by post at this address, by email at infogov@dundeecity.gov.uk or by telephone on 01382 434206 if you need any further information.
Why do we need your personal information and what do we do with it?
You are giving us your personal information to allow us record, investigate and respond to your complaint, and also for quality control purposes. We also use your information to verify your identity where required, contact you by post, email or telephone and to maintain our records.
Legal basis for using your information:
We provide these complaint handling services to you as part of our statutory function as your local authority. You can find more details of our role on our website at https://dundeecity.gov.uk/service-area/chief-executive/chief-executives-services/complaints-council
Processing your personal information is:
- Necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest by the council. The complaints service is provided in terms of the Council’s statutory functions as a local authority and in terms of the model Complaints Handling Procedure for Local Authorities in Scotland as developed by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
- Necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the council is subject i.e. the provision of a complaints procedure
If you do not provide us with the information we have asked for then we will not be able to provide this service to you.
Who do we share your information with?
We are legally obliged to safeguard public funds so we are required to verify and check your details internally for fraud prevention. We may share this information with other public bodies (and also receive information from these other bodies) for fraud checking purposes. We are also legally obliged to share certain data with other public bodies, such as HMRC and will do so where the law requires this. We will also generally comply with requests for specific information from other regulatory and law enforcement bodies where this is necessary and appropriate. Your information is also analysed internally to help us improve our services. This data sharing is in accordance with our Information Use and Privacy Policy and covered in our full privacy statement on our website. It also forms part of our requirements in line with our Records Management Plan approved in terms of the Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011.
In relation to complaints, your details will be accessed by Council staff who need to do so in order to provide this service. The Council will not share your personal data with anyone who is not involved in dealing with your complaint or in ensuring that all complaints are dealt with in accordance with our procedures and good practice. We will share your data with the office of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman if you ask them to carry out an independent review of your complaint, as required by the SPSO Act 2002. You can see a copy of their privacy statement at https://www.spso.org.uk
How long do we keep your information for?
We only keep your personal information for the minimum period amount of time necessary. Sometimes this time period is set out in the law, but in most cases it is based on the business need.
The Council will hold information on complaints for five years from the date the complaint is recorded as closed. This will allow us to ensure information is retained in case the complaint is escalated and to ensure that any action agreed as a result of the complaint is followed up.
We also send surveys to people who have made complaints to measure their satisfaction with the process and we will use your data to contact you to give you the opportunity to complete such a survey. If you do not wish to be contacted for this purpose, please let us know.
Your rights under data protection law:
- access to your information – you have the right to access the information we hold on you. There are two ways to access your data:
Subject Access Request: you have the right to request a copy of the personal information that we hold about you.
Data Portability: you can ask us for a copy of your information so that you can re-use it and we will provide it in a machine-readable format. This is a qualified right, which means it only applies in certain circumstances and only relates to information you have given directly to us. - correcting your information – we want to make sure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date. Therefore you may ask us to correct any personal information about you that you believe does not meet these standards.
- deletion of your information – you have the right to ask us to delete personal information about you where:
- you think that we no longer need to hold the information for the purposes for which it was originally obtained
- we are using that information with your consent and you have withdrawn your consent – see Withdrawing consent to using your information below
- you have a genuine objection to our use of your personal information – see Objecting to how we may use your information below
- our use of your personal information is contrary to law or our other legal obligations.
Objecting to how we may use your information – You have the right at any time to tell us to stop using your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
Restricting how we may use your information – in some cases, you may ask us to restrict how we use your personal information. This right might apply, for example, where we are checking the accuracy of personal information that we hold about you or we are assessing the objection you have made to our use of your information. This right might also apply if we no longer have a basis for using your personal information but you don't want us to delete the data. Where this right is realistically applied will mean that we may only use the relevant personal information with your consent, for legal claims or where there are other public interest grounds to do so.
Withdrawing consent to use your information – Where we use your personal information with your consent you may withdraw that consent at any time and we will stop using your personal information for the purpose(s) for which consent was given.
Please contact us as stated above if you wish to exercise any of these rights.
Information you have given us about other people:
If you have provided anyone else’s details when making your complaint, please make sure that you have told them that you have given their information to Dundee City Council. We will only use this information to record, investigate and respond to the complaint and for quality control purposes. If they want any more information on how we will use their information they can visit our web site at https://dundeecity.gov.uk/service-area/chief-executive/chief-executives-services/privacy-statement or email infogov@dundeecity.gov.uk.
Complaints:
We aim to directly resolve all complaints about how we handle personal information. However, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office, who can be contacted:
- by post at: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
- by phone on: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745.
Visit their website for more information at https://ico.org.uk/concerns