Privacy policy

Police and Crime Commissioner for Hertfordshire Privacy Policy

The Data Protection Act 2018 governs the use of personal data in the UK. Personal Data is information we handle that relates to any living natural person. This privacy policy explains how we use any personal information we collect about you when you make contact with the OPCC in connection with any of our statutory functions. The PCC is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. We comply with the law to protect the use of your personal information and we keep it securely and only use it in accordance with legal requirements and this notice. By engaging with us for our statutory functions and using this site you are agreeing to accept this privacy notice as the basis on which we process your personal information.

 
Who are we?

This Privacy Notice is provided to you by the Police and Crime Commissioner for Hertfordshire (the PCC), which is the data controller for your information. The PCC is a public authority established by the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 and this notice encompasses the PCC, their staff and others working with them to carry out their statutory functions. Our data protection officer is Jolene Neil who is employed by or on behalf of Hertfordshire Constabulary whose systems we use to collect and securely hold most of the personal data we use. Her address is Information Management, Bedfordshire Police, Woburn Road, Kempston, MK43 9AX.

Other data controllers we work with:

• Local authorities
• The Home Office
• Other government departments
• Hertfordshire Constabulary
• Other police forces
• Other Police and Crime Commissioners
• Community groups
• Charities
• Other not for profit entities
• Contractors
• Employment agencies

We may need to share your personal information we hold with them so that we and they can carry out our and their statutory functions.
 
What information do we collect about you?.

• Names, titles, and photographs;
• Contact details such as telephone numbers, addresses, and email addresses;
• Where they are necessary for the functions of the Commissioner, or where you provide them to us, we may process information such as gender, age,marital status, nationality, education/work history, academic/professional qualifications, family composition, and dependants;
• Where they are necessary for the functions of the Commissioner, the personal information we process may include sensitive or other special categories of personal information such as criminal convictions or allegations, racial or ethnic origin, mental and physical health, details of injuries, medication/treatment received, political beliefs, trade union affiliation, genetic information, biometric information, information concerning your sexual life or orientation.
• We gather information about site usage to help the development and improvement of services to the public, and to protect the integrity of our systems from malicious users. 

How do we collect Information about you?

This depends upon the reason for us having the information. In many cases you will provide the information yourself because you have contacted us in the course of one of our statutory functions. In other cases we may receive your information from one of the organisations we set out in the ‘Who might we share your personal information with?’ section below because they need to refer your details to us so that we or they can carry out a statutory task or public function. You may also provide information to allow us to consider a contract for goods services or employment with you.

Information may be collected online or from telephone contact or on paper.

What is the legal basis for our use of personal information?

This depends on the circumstances of our engagement with you and yours with us. Usually with the public this will be Public Task, that is to carry out the PCC’s statutory functions with regard to any member of the public who engages with the PCC. The other legal bases used are:

Contract, where the use of personal information is necessary to perform a contract between the PCC and another, including those contracts made between the PCC and a contract where the PCC is procuring goods or services for the Chief Constable.

Legal Obligation, where in the course of the PCC’s statutory functions it is necessary to process personal data to comply with a legal obligation.

Consent, where we carry out any other processing with your consent. This will only be very rarely the basis for processing information and if used you will be advised of your additional rights as set out in the section ‘Marketing’ below, as well as the section ‘Your rights and personal information’ that follows.

Some of our work may involve processing special category personal data as defined in the Data Protection Act. This will require an additional legal basis which may be consent, other circumstances allowed by the law, or very rarely where it is necessary to avoid serious harm to you or another.

How will we use the information about you?

We use information about you in order to carry out our official functions or public tasks that are set out in law, mainly the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011.
 
These include maintaining an effective and efficient police force for Hertfordshire, holding the Chief Constable to account for the functions of the Chief Constable and of those officers and staff under the direction and control of the Chief Constable, other related policing governance functions, provision of victims’ services, making crime and disorder reduction grants, provision of information to the public about the exercise of our functions, obtaining the views of the community on policing, functions in connection with complaints about the police service in Hertfordshire and other functions of the PCC including things that are incidental or conducive to or facilitate those functions including entering into contracts and employing staff.
 
Who might we share your personal data with?

Where it is necessary to carry out our or their statutory functions we may share your personal data with: 

• Local authorities
• The Home Office
• Other government departments
• Hertfordshire Constabulary
• Other police forces
• Other Police and Crime Commissioners
• Community groups
• Charities
• Other not for profit entities
• Contractors
• Employment agencies

If we do share your personal information we will require the same or better safeguards for your information from them as we would provide.

Because of the way the website is set up, all completed online forms are automatically sent securely to the central police IT team responsible for delivery of the National Police Chiefs' Council Digital Policing Portfolio, as well as us.

 
Marketing

In addition to our statutory function of obtaining the views of the community on policing, we may like to send you information about events and services of ours and other providers that support the work of the OPCC which may be of interest to you. For this purpose we will ask for your consent to use your personal information to provide the type of information you request.
 
If you have consented to receive marketing, you may opt out at a later date. You have a right at any time to stop us from contacting you for this purpose. If you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes, please email [email protected]

Because of the way the website is set up, all completed online forms are automatically sent securely to the central police IT team responsible for delivery of the National Police Chiefs' Council Digital Policing Portfolio, as well as us.

 
How long will we keep your information for?

We will usually keep general correspondence for no longer than 2 years. We may keep some information for longer periods in accordance with best practice or a legal requirement. For example, complaints may be kept for up to 6 years and it is currently best practice to keep financial records for a minimum period of 6 years to support audits or provide tax information.  We may have legal obligations to retain some data in connection with our statutory obligations as a public authority. The Commissioner is permitted to retain data in order to defend or pursue claims, for example under contracts for goods services or employment. 

In general, we will keep personal information only for as long as we need it.  This means that we will delete or destroy it when it is no longer needed.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect. Audits and checks are made from time to time to ensure the integrity of these systems.

Your Rights and your Personal Information

You have the following rights with respect to your personal information:

When exercising any of the rights listed below, in order to process your request, we may need to verify your identity for your security.  In such cases we will need you to respond with proof of your identity before you can exercise these rights.
 
 1)  The right to access personal information we hold on you

• At any point you can contact us to request the personal information we hold on you as well as why we have that personal information, who has access to the personal information and where we obtained the personal information from.Once we have received your request we will respond within one month.
• There are no fees or charges for the first request but additional requests for the same personal information or requests which are manifestly unfounded or excessive may be subject to an administrative fee.

2)  The right to correct and update the personal information we hold on you

• If the information we hold on you is out of date, incomplete or incorrect, you can inform us and your information will be updated.

3)  The right to have your personal information erased

• If you feel that we should no longer be using your personal information or that we are unlawfully using your personal information, you can request that we erase the personal information we hold.
• When we receive your request we will confirm whether the personal information has been deleted or the reason why it cannot be deleted (for example because we need it for to comply with a legal obligation).

4)  The right to object to processing of your personal information or to restrict it to certain purposes only

• You have the right to request that we stop processing your personal information or ask us to restrict processing. Upon receiving the request we will contact you and let you know if we are able to comply or if we have a legal obligation to continue to process your information.

5)  The right to data portability

• You have the right to request that we transfer some of your information to another controller. We will comply with your request, where it is feasible to do so, within one month of receiving your request.

6)  The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time for any processing of information to which consent was obtained

• You can withdraw your consent easily by telephone, email, or by post (see Contact Details below).

7)  The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office

• You can contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 or via their website or at the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Cookies

Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information. This information is used to track visitor use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity.

For further information visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org
 
You can set your browser not to accept cookies and the above websites tell you how to remove cookies from your browser. However in a few cases some of our website features may not function as a result.
 
Other websites

Our website contains links to other websites. This privacy policy only applies to this website so when you link to other websites you should read their own privacy policies.
 
Changes to our privacy policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review and we will place any updates on this web page. This privacy policy was last updated on 15 February 2024.
 
How to contact us

Please contact us if you have any questions about our privacy policy or information we hold about you via the following email address: [email protected] or by post to:

Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Herfordshire
13 Vaughan Road
Harpenden
Herts
AL5 4GZ