Privacy notice: Electoral Services

1. Introduction

This Privacy Notice explains types of personal information we may collect about you when you interact with us. It also explains how we will store and handle that information, as well as keep it safe and secure.

We will keep our privacy notice under regular review and will advise you of any updates on our website.

This Notice was last reviewed in July 2024.

2. Who we are

For the purposes of Data Protection legislation, the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) and Returning Officer (RO) are data controllers who collect and use information about residents to enable us to carry out specific functions for which we are statutorily responsible.

3. What type of personal information do we collect?

We keep records about potential and actual electors, voters, citizens, candidates and their agents, staff employed at an election or by the ERO and the people we need to pay. These may be written down or kept on a computer.

These records may include:

basic details about you eg your name, address, date of birth and nationality
photograph (if applying for a voter authority certificate)
telephone numbers and email addresses
unique identifiers (such as your National Insurance number, elector number)
scanned application forms, emails and correspondence, including copies of any evidence to support your application
notes about any relevant circumstances that you may have told us about
your previous or any redirected address
the other occupants in your home
if you are over 76 or under 18
whether you have chosen to opt-out of the open version of the register of electors.

In addition, if you work for the RO on election duties or for the ERO for registration duties these may also include:

payroll and tax status
next of kin / emergency contact details
details of previous employment.

If you are a candidate at an election, an appointed agent at an election or a campaigner we may also hold these details:

political party affiliation
campaign group affiliation
elections expenses

When you apply to register to vote or apply for a voter authority certificate, to verify your identity, the data you provide will be processed by the Individual Electoral Registration Digital Service managed by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG). As part of this process your data will be shared with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and MHCLG suppliers that are data processors for the Individual Electoral Registration Digital Service.

Where it is not possible to verify an elector's identity via the Individual Electoral Registration Digital Service, there may be additional processing of personal data in respect of supplementary evidence of identity submitted by applicants.

In relation to particular categories of elector (service voters, overseas electors, crown servants, etc) there may be additional information processed. For example, in relation to service voters, information may be processed relating to type of service (Army/Navy/Air Force), Rank, Regiment and BFPO address.

Where an elector requests an absent vote (ie to vote by post or proxy) personal identifiers in the form of signatures and dates of birth will be processed. For postal voters redirection addresses will be collected and for proxy voters details of the electors' nominated proxies will be processed.

At elections we will process, in addition to the information relating to electors, information relating to candidates, candidate's agents and individuals subscribing candidate's nomination papers.

Personal data will be processed relating to staff employed directly by the Electoral Registration Officer or the Returning Officer. Such staff data will include an employee's name, address, other contact details, national insurance number, bank details and a copy of the evidence of their eligibility to work in the UK (such as a passport).

Personal data relating to individuals making enquiries or making submissions to election-related statutory consultations will also be processed.

We also process the following special category personal information:

Race and ethnic origin, insofar as it may be possible for this to be inferred from nationality information.
Political opinions - such as information contained within subscribed nomination papers.
Health data - this may be contained within applications to vote by proxy or for an application for a waiver.

In limited circumstances we will also process personal data relating to "criminal convictions and offences" (which under the Data Protection Act 2018 includes the alleged commission of offences) - for example the Electoral Registration Officer may receive a request to register to vote from a prisoner on remand or an application for anonymous registration may contain references to the alleged commission of offences by an identifiable third party.

4. How do we collect personal information?

We may collect your personal information in a number of ways, for example:

In person
In writing - for example, application form, letter or email
Telephone calls
Online forms
From other council records
From Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) records
Referrals from another department
Enquiries received from the following organisations:
- Police forces
- Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
- HM Revenues and Customs (HMRC)

5. Why do we collect your personal information?

We collect your personal information for the following purposes:

The compilation and maintenance of the electoral register (there are two versions of the electoral register - the full version and the edited/open version)
to undertake our statutory obligation to ensure that all eligible people in South Tyneside are registered to vote
to enable all registered electors to participate in elections and referendums
to provide registered electors with a voter authority certificate where requested
to enable eligible people to stand as candidates in elections in accordance with statutory requirements
fulfilling legal obligations to publish statutory notices containing personal details of candidates and election agents
fulfilling legal obligations relating to the supply or sale of the electoral register
fulfilling obligations relating to the supply of absent voting lists
for the administration of local and national elections and referenda
If you are a counting agent, polling agent, postal vote agent, nominating officer or similar official, managing the election processes in which you are involved
If you are employed by the Electoral Registration Officer or the Returning Officer, managing that employment
If you make an enquiry or complaint, dealing with that enquiry or complaint.

With regard to the above, we will specifically use personal information on the register of electors to:

conduct an annual canvass of all households to establish all eligible persons who are entitled to be registered, including data matching with nationally and locally held data
to contact you, via telephone or email, about your registration or to update the register of electors
produce letters and application forms
production and issue of voter authority certificates, poll cards to electors and to their proxies, postal voting packs and polling station registers
determining which electors are entitled to be issued with ballot papers at polling stations
determining absent vote applications
If you are an absent voter, the compilation and maintenance of absent voters lists
If you are a postal voter, receiving and processing your completed postal voting statement

Automated Decision Making

If you are a postal voter, we use your information to make decisions through automated means when we check personal identifiers that you provide against those contained in your original postal vote application. In any case where the automated process reports that the personal identifiers you have provided do not match those on your original postal vote application, there will be an intervention by a human being who will make any final decision (ie there will always be the involvement of a human decision-maker where the result of the automated process indicates the possibility of a decision to your detriment).

Data Retention

How long will we keep your personal information?

The ERO & RO needs to process your personal data in order to maintain the register of eletors and prepare for and conduct elections. Your details will be kept and updated in accordance with our legal obligations and in line with statutory retention periods in our retention schedule.

Electoral Registration

We will retain any documents that contain your personal information for only as long as it takes for your registration application to be determined following which we securely dispose of the documents.

We retain electronic information about persons on the electoral register for only as long as they remain registered, following which the information will be deleted.

Candidates standing for election

We are required by law (Principal Area Rules 2006) to retain candidate nomination papers for candidates standing in elections for no longer than 12 months after the election, following which the documents are securely destroyed.

Home address forms provided by candidates standing elections are retained for a period of 21 days after the election, following which they are securely disposed of. However, if an election petition relating to the election is presented within the 21 calendar days, the home address forms must be kept securely until the conclusion of the petition proceedings (including any appeal from such proceedings). They must then be securely destroyed on the next working day following the conclusion of the proceedings or appeal.

We are required by law to retain candidate election spending documents for a period of no more than 2 years from the date on which the expenses are received. At the end of the two year period, the respective candidate can request the return of the candidate spending documents. Otherwise the expenses documents will be securely disposed of.

6. Who might we share your personal information with?

We are required by law to provide copies of the full register of electors to certain organisations and individuals (such as political parties, agents, candidates and some government organisations like the Electoral Commission and the Office for National Statistics).

They may use it for their own reasons which are different to ours but they still have to look after the data contained in the register in the same way that we do.

When registering to vote, applying for an absent vote or a voter authority certificate the data you provide will be processed by the Individual Electoral Registration Digital Service (IERDS), which is managed by MHCLG, to verify your identity. As part of this process, your data will be shared with the DWP and MHCLG suppliers that are data processors for the IERDS. Find out more information about this at GOV.UK: Register to Vote Privacy Policy.

If you have not opted out of being included on the open register, by law your information can be shared with anyone who requests it. They may use it for their own reasons which are different to ours. You can find out more information about the difference between the full and open registers at GOV.UK: The electoral register and the 'open register'.

In accordance with law, the full register of electors has to be made available for public inspection. The full register of electors is available to be viewed by any member of the public at South Shields Town Hall. People who inspect the register must be supervised by a member of the Customer Services team and are only allowed to take hand written notes. They are not allowed to take copies or photographs of the register.

Both the full and open registers are comprised of names and addresses. They do not contain any phone numbers or email addresses.

Other occasions when your information needs to be shared include:

With our printers and software providers, to compile and manage the register, to print poll cards, postal vote packs and other electoral material
With credit reference agencies, the British Library and other statutory recipients of the register of electors
The government's Gov Notify service, to send emails and text messages about the register of electors
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Department for Work and Pensions, to carry out national data matching as part of the annual canvass of households
Details of whether you have voted (but not how you have voted) with those who are entitled in law to receive it after an election
Where the health and safety of others is at risk
When the law requires us to pass on information under special circumstances, crime prevention or the detection of fraud as part of the National Fraud Initiative
The Government's GOV Notify service , to send emails and text messages about the register of electors, where relevant contact details are held
The Cabinet Office and Department for Work and Pensions, to carry out national data matching as part of the annual canvass of households

We are required by law to report certain information to appropriate authorities - for example

where a formal court order has been issued
for the prevention or detection of a crime
to the Jury Central Summoning Bureau indicating those persons who are aged 76 or over and are no longer eligible for jury service

We will not share your personal information with any other third parties unless you have specifically asked us to do so.

7. What is our legal basis for using your personal information?

To use your personal information there must be a lawful basis to do this, such as, through a contract, performing a public task or where there is a legal obligation.

We collect, use and otherwise process this personal information on the basis of our legal obligations (Article 6(1)(c) of the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR")) and/or its public task functions (Article 6(1)(e) of the GDPR).

In the case of the collection, use or other processing of special category personal data, the additional basis relied upon for processing such information is that it is necessary for reasons of substantial pubic interest (Article 9(2)(g) of the GDPR).

The ERO/RO has specific statutory powers to collect retain and process personal data from individuals and inspection of other council records is mostly governed by legislation (including):

The Local Government Act 1972
Representation of the People Act (1983, 1985 & 2000)
Representation of the People Regulations (multiple dates)
Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000
European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002
Local Government Act 2003
Review of Polling Districts and Polling Places (Parliamentary Elections) Regulations 2006
Electoral Administration Act 2006
Local Elections (Principal Areas) (England and Wales) Rules
Local Authorities (Referendums) (Petitions) (England) Regulations 2011
Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011
Local Authorities (Conduct of Referendums) (England) Regulations 2012
Neighbourhood Planning (Referendums) Regulations 2012
The Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013
The Elections Act 2022
The Local Government (Disqualification) Act 2022
The Voter Identification Regulations 2022

The law makes it compulsory to provide information to an ERO when requested. This is for the compilation and maintenance of an accurate electoral register. Records are kept for:

potential electors who need to register to vote
non-eligible citizens so we can stop inviting them to register
electors who have registered to vote.

Returning Officers have statutory duties to collect and retain information from:

candidates and their agents
staff employed at an election
voters.

This information may be kept in either digital format (ie data within a software system or as scanned copies of documents) or hard copy printed format or both.

8. How do we keep your personal information secure?

Information provided to Electoral Services is held securely on our network or in secure premises, if provided in paper format. Other than those individuals and organisations that we are required to share your information with (listed at 6 above) only officers working within, or authorised by, Electoral Services have access to the information database.

9. Is your personal information used overseas?

Individuals and organisations that we are required to share your information with may process your information overseas, but they still have to look after the data contained in the register in the same way that we do. The open register may be bought by an overseas organisation or individual and can be used for marketing purposes.

10. What are your rights?

Your individual rights are set out in law. Subject to some legal exemptions, you have the following rights:

Right to be informed
Right of access
Right to rectification
Right to erasure
Right to restrict processing
Right to data portability
Right to object
Rights in relating to automated decision making and profiling

11. Contact us

If you would like to exercise your rights in relation to your personal information, or you feel that something has gone wrong with your personal information, you can contact us in either of the following ways:

By email: data.protection@southtyneside.gov.uk
By telephone: 0191 424 6539
In writing: South Tyneside Council, Information Governance, Town Hall and Civic Offices, South Shields, NE33 2RL

If you feel that the Council has not handled your information correctly you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The ICO is the Government's Independent Body responsible for overseeing data protection. In most cases the ICO will only review cases that have exhausted the Council's internal procedures.

The ICO's contact details are as follows: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF. More information can be found on the ICO's website at www.ico.org.uk.