Legal Services

This privacy notice relates to the Shared Legal Service.  It should be read together with our general privacy notice, which provides more detail on the questions.

The information held is the names and addresses and contact details of individuals including client officers in relation to legal cases and may include special category data such as racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, health information, sexual orientation information, information concerning a natural person’s sex life, as well as financial information or information relating to criminal convictions and offences.

We use your personal information to undertake legal work in respect of our clients’ functions and activities. Our clients include those internally from other departments within the Council, and those who we act for externally to the Council.

We will use your personal data in accordance with law enforcement purposes, as set out in Part 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018 ('the 2018 Act'). 

The term ‘law enforcement purposes’ relates to the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences, or the execution of criminal penalties (including the safeguarding against, and the prevention of, threats to public security.)

We may need to process sensitive personal data for law enforcement purposes, where it relates to a pressing social need, which cannot reasonably be achieved through less intrusive means. Such processing will only take place if either one of the law enforcement purposes set out in the 2018 Act is satisfied, or you have given your consent.
 

Your personal data is used:

• where it is necessary for the performance of a contract (article 6 (1)(b) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (‘UK GDPR’).
• because it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject such as complying with Court directions (article 6 (1)(c) of the UK GDPR);
• where it is necessary for the performance of a public task (article 6 (1)(e) of the UK GDPR);
• for providing legal services to our clients (article 6 (1)(f) of the UK GDPR) in pursuit of our legitimate interests;
   

We may use special category data where it is necessary for legal cases

• for carrying out obligations or rights in connection with employment and social security and social protection law (article 9(2)(b) of the UK GDPR);
• to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim (article 9(2)(f) of the UK GDPR);
• for reasons of substantial public interest (Article 9 (2) (g) of the UK GDPR);
• for purposes of preventative or occupational medicine, for the assessment of the working capacity of any employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services (article 9(2)(h) of UK GDPR).
   

The majority of personal information will be provided by you.  We sometimes receive information from other council departments or other organisations such as Government bodies or third parties for example outside agencies or claimants. 

Your information may be shared with other Council departments, Courts and Tribunals, Representatives of other parties, Barristers and Experts, the Police and other Enforcement Agencies, service providers such as bailiffs, government Departments, other Councils, regulatory bodies, auditors, the Land Registry and our insurers.

We do not process your personal data by automated means.

Our retention schedule sets out how long we keep personal information for.

You can find out more about your rights regarding the personal information used for this service.  Your rights apply to the information held by us as a data controller, and the information we hold on behalf of the other data controllers.

If you have any questions or concerns about how we use your personal information, please contact the Council’s Data Protection Officer.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you're unhappy about how we process your information.