Your personal data – what is it?

“Personal data” is any information about a living individual that enables them to be identified. Identification can be direct (e.g., name) or indirect (e.g., by combining data sets). The processing of personal data is governed by legislation applicable in the United Kingdom, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (the “UK GDPR”), the Data Protection Act 2018, and other relevant laws such as the Human Rights Act.

Who are we?

This Privacy Notice is provided to you by the Essex Association of Local Councils (EALC), which is the data controller for your personal data.

Other data controllers the EALC works with:

• Local authorities
• Community groups
• Charities
• Other not-for-profit entities
• Contractors

We may need to share your personal data with these organisations so they can fulfil their responsibilities to the EALC. If we and another organisation are jointly determining the purpose and means of processing your data, we are considered joint data controllers and are collectively responsible to you. If each organisation processes your data independently, they are individually responsible, and you should contact them directly regarding your rights or concerns. 

What Personal Data Do We Process?

The EALC may process some or all of the following personal data:

• Names, titles, aliases, photographs
• Contact details: telephone numbers, addresses, and email addresses
• Demographic data: gender, age, marital status, nationality
• Education and employment history, qualifications, hobbies, family composition, dependants
• Financial data: bank account numbers, payment card details, transaction identifiers
• Special category data: racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, trade union membership, genetic and biometric data, health information, sexual orientation, criminal convictions

How We Use Sensitive Personal Data

We may process special category data where necessary, including:

• Health data for sick leave monitoring or fitness for work
• Ethnical or religious data for equal opportunities monitoring
• Legal obligations or safeguarding requirements

These data types require higher protection under the UK GDPR.  We will only process them when:

• You have given explicit written consent
• It is necessary for legal obligations
• It is in the public interest
• It is required for legal claims or to protect vital interests where consent cannot be obtained

Do We Need Your Consent?

In limited cases, we may request your written consent to process sensitive personal data. We will explain what data we need and why, so you can make an informed decision.

Our Commitment to Data Protection

We comply with data protection law, which requires that personal data must be:

• Used lawfully, fairly, and transparently
• Collected for specific, legitimate purposes
• Relevant and limited to what is necessary
• Accurate and kept up to date
• Retained only as long as necessary
• Stored securely to prevent loss, misuse, or unauthorised access

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use your data for purposes including:

• Delivering services and understanding your needs
• Confirming identity
• Communicating via post, email, phone, or social media
• Monitoring performance
• Preventing fraud and supporting law enforcement
• Meeting legal and statutory obligations
• Safeguarding children and adults-at-risk
• Promoting EALC’s interests
• Maintaining accounts and records
• Seeking feedback and opinions
• Notifying you of changes to services or staff
• Sending requested communications (e.g., campaigns, events)
• Processing financial transactions
• Conducting statistical analysis for service planning

Legal Basis for Processing Your Data

We process your personal data under the following lawful bases:

• Legal obligation – to comply with statutory duties
• Public task – to perform tasks in the public interest
• Consent – where required, we will obtain your consent
• Contract – where processing is necessary for a contract
• Vital interests – to protect life or health
• Legitimate interests – where applicable and balanced against your rights

The EALC will comply with data protection law. This says that the personal data we hold about you must be:

• Used lawfully, fairly, and in a transparent way.
• Collected only for a valid purpose that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.
• Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.
• Accurate and kept up to date
• Kept only as long as necessary for the purpose we have told you about
• Kept and destroyed securely, including ensuring that appropriate technical and security measures are in place to protect your personal data to protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, and disclosure.

We use your personal data for some or all of the following purposes:

• To deliver services, including understanding your needs to provide the services that you request, and to understand what we can do for you, and inform you of other relevant services.
• To confirm your identity to provide some services.
• To contact you by post, email, telephone, or using social media;
• To help us build up a picture of how we are performing;
• To prevent and detect fraud and corruption in the use of funds, and where necessary for the law enforcement functions;
• To enable us to meet all legal and statutory obligations and powers, including any delegated functions;
• To carry out comprehensive safeguarding procedures (including due diligence and complaints handling) in accordance with best safeguarding practice from time to time to ensure that all children and adults-at-risk are provided with safe environments and generally as necessary to protect individuals from harm or injury;
• To promote the interest of the EALC;
• To maintain our own accounts and records;
• To seek your views, opinions, or comments;
• To notify you of changes to our facilities, services, events, and staff, councillors, and other role holders;
• To send you communications that you have requested and that may be of interest to you. These may include information about campaigns, appeals, other new projects or initiatives;
• To process relevant financial transactions, including grants and payments for goods and services supplied to the council;
• To allow the statistical analysis of data so that we can plan the provision of services.

What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?

The EALC is an Association of Local Councils and has certain obligations. Most of your personal data is processed for compliance with a legal obligation, which includes the discharge of the EALC statutory functions and powers.

Sometimes the use of your personal data requires your consent. We will first obtain your consent to that use.

Sharing your personal data

This section provides information about the third parties with whom the EALC may share your personal data. These third parties have an obligation to put in place appropriate security measures and will be responsible to you directly for the manner in which they process and protect your personal data. We will likely need to share your data with some or all of the following (but only where necessary):

The data controllers listed above under the heading “Other data controllers the EALC works with;”

On occasion, other local authorities or not-for-profit bodies with which we are carrying out joint ventures, e.g., in relation to facilities or events for the community.

How long do we keep your personal data?

We will keep some records permanently if we are legally required to do so. We may retain some other records for an extended period. For example, it is currently best practice to keep financial records for a minimum period of 8 years to support HMRC audits or provide tax information. The EALC is permitted to retain data to defend or pursue claims. In some cases, the law imposes a time limit for such claims (for example, 3 years for personal injury claims or 6 years for contract claims). We will retain some personal data for this purpose as long as we believe it is necessary to be able to defend or pursue a claim. In general, we will endeavour to keep data only for as long as we need it. This means that we will delete it when it is no longer needed.

Your rights and your personal data

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

When exercising any of the rights listed below, 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.

The right to access the personal data we hold on you

At any point, you can contact us to request the personal data we hold on you, as well as why we have that personal data, who has access to the personal data, and where we obtained the personal data 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 data or requests that are manifestly unfounded or excessive may be subject to an administrative fee.

The right to correct and update the personal data we hold on you

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

The right to have your personal data erased

If you feel that we should no longer be using your personal data or that we are unlawfully using your personal data, you can request that we erase the personal data we hold.

When we receive your request, we will confirm whether the personal data has been deleted or the reason why it cannot be deleted (for example, because we need it to comply with a legal obligation).

The right to object to the processing of your personal data or to restrict it to certain purposes only

You have the right to request that we stop processing your personal data 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 data.

The right to data portability

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

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

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

The right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office

You can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office on 0303 123 1113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global.contact-us/email/ or at the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Transfer of Data Abroad

Any personal data transferred to countries or territories outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”) will only be placed on systems complying with measures giving equivalent protection of personal rights either through international agreements or contracts approved by the European Union.

Further processing

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Privacy Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use before commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purpose and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.

Changes to this notice

We keep this Privacy Notice under regular review, and we will place any updates on http://www.ealc.gov.uk/home. This Notice was last updated in October 2025.

Contact Details

Please contact us if you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or the personal data we hold about you, or to exercise your rights, please contact:

Essex Association of Local Councils (EALC)

First Floor Offices, Room 2 & 3,

RCCE House, Threshelfords Business Park,

Inworth Road, Feering,

Colchester, Essex, CO5 9SE.

Email: info@ealc.gov.uk

Telephone: 01371 879 722