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Our Appropriate Policy Document

Our Appropriate Policy Document (APD) outlines how we process special categories of personal data and criminal offence data.

The Data Protection Act 2018 outlines the requirement for an APD to be in place when processing special category and criminal offence data under certain specified conditions.

Almost all the substantial public interest conditions in Schedule 1 Part 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018, plus the condition for processing employment, social security, and social protection data, require us to have an APD in place.

As part of our statutory and corporate functions, we process special category data and criminal offence data in accordance with the requirements of Article 9 and 10 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (‘UK GDPR’) and Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Some of the Schedule 1 conditions for processing special category and criminal offence data require us to have an APD in place, setting out and explaining our procedures for securing compliance with the principles in Article 5 and policies regarding the retention and erasure of such personal data.

This document explains our processing and satisfies the requirements of Schedule 1, Part 4 of the Data Protection Act 2018. 

Our processing of special category and criminal offence data for law enforcement purposes is not covered in this document. Processing for law enforcement purposes is carried out by us in our capacity as a competent local authority and falls under Part 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018. For further information please see our Law Enforcement Privacy Notice.

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Special category data

special category data is defined at Article 9 of the UK GDPR as personal data revealing:

  • racial or ethnic origin
  • political opinions
  • religious or philosophical beliefs
  • trade union membership
  • genetic data
  • biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person
  • data concerning health; or
  • data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation

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Criminal offence (criminal offence) data

Article 10 of the UK GDPR covers processing in relation to criminal convictions and offences or related security measures.

In addition, section 11(2) of the DPA 2018 specifically confirms that this includes personal data relating to the alleged commission of offences or proceedings for an offence committed or alleged to have been committed, including sentencing. This is collectively referred to as ‘criminal offence data’.

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Conditions for processing special category and criminal offence data

We process special category personal data under the following UK GDPR Articles:

Article 9(2)(a) – explicit consent

In some circumstances where we seek explicit consent when required for specific purposes, however the council may provide your personal details without consent when there is lawful purpose to so.

Examples of our processing include health information we receive from our customers who require a reasonable adjustment to access our services.

Article 9(2)(b) – where processing is necessary for the purposes of performing or exercising obligations or rights which are imposed or conferred by law on the council or the data subject in connection with employment, social security, or social protection.

Examples of our processing include collection of council tax and providing social services to residents

Article 9(2)(c) – where processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person.

An example of our processing would be providing contact information to other services to conduct safeguarding checks.

Article 9(2)(e) – Processing relates to personal data manifestly made public by the data subject.

An example of our processing would be for investigations.

Article 9(2)(f) – for the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims.

Examples of our processing include processing relating to any employment tribunal or other litigation.

Article 9(2)(g) - reasons of substantial public interest.

Examples of our processing includes responsibility for monitoring the application of the UK GDPR (as well as the Data Protection Act 2018) to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons in relation to processing.

Our processing in this context is for the purposes of providing public services in the public interest and is necessary for the carrying out our role.

Article 9(2)(h) - Processing is necessary for the purposes of preventative or occupational medicine, for assessing the working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or management of health or social care systems and services on the basis of Union or Member State law or a contract with a health professional.

Examples of our processing includes protecting and safeguarding.

Article 9(2)(i) - Processing is necessary for reasons of public interest in the area of public health, such as protecting against serious cross-border threats to health or ensuring high standards of healthcare and of medicinal products or medical devices.

Examples of our processing includes our public health services.

Article 9(2)(j) – for archiving purposes in the public interest.  

The relevant purpose we rely on is Schedule 1 Part 1 paragraph 4 – archiving.

Examples of our processing are the transfers we make to the National Archives or City Archives as part of our obligations under the Public Records Act 1958 (as amended). 

We process criminal offence data under Article 10 of the UK GDPR.

Examples of our processing of criminal offence data include pre-employment checks and declarations by an employee in line with contractual obligations; Youth Justice Service.

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Description of data processed

We process the special category data about our employees that is necessary to fulfil our obligations as an employer. This includes information about their health and wellbeing, ethnicity, photographs, and their membership of any trade union.

Further information about this processing can be found in our published internal Employee Privacy Notice.

Our processing for reasons of substantial public interest relates to the data we receive or obtain to fulfil our statutory function as a local authority. This may be evidence provided to us as part of a complaint or intelligence information we gather for our investigations.

Further information about this processing can be found in our published privacy notices.

We also comply with the requirement for a record of our processing activities in accordance with Article 30 of the UK GDPR.

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Schedule 1 conditions for processing

Special category data:

We process special category data in Part 1 of Schedule 1 and in Part 2 of Schedule 1 as set out in our published privacy notices.

Criminal offence data:

We process criminal offence data as set out in the published Law Enforcement Processing privacy notice.

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Procedures for ensuring compliance with the Principles

We have put in place the following procedures to ensure compliance:

Accountability

We have put in place appropriate technical and organisational measures to meet the requirements of accountability. These include:

  • the appointment of a data protection officer who reports directly to our highest management level
  • taking a ‘data protection by design and default’ approach to our activities
  • maintaining documentation of our processing activities
  • adopting and implementing data protection policies and ensuring we have written contracts in place with our data processors
  • implementing appropriate security measures in relation to the personal data we process
  • carrying out data protection impact assessments for our high-risk processing

We regularly review our accountability measures and update or amend them when required.

Lawfulness, fairness, and transparency

Processing special category and criminal offence must be lawful, fair, and transparent. It is only lawful if and to the extent it is based on law and either the data subject has given their consent for the processing, or the processing meets at least one of the conditions in Schedule 1.

We provide clear and transparent information about why we process special category and criminal offence including our lawful basis for processing in our published privacy notices and this policy document.

Our processing for purposes of substantial public interest is necessary for the exercise of a function of providing services to residents of York, for example council tax collection, or waste collection.

Our processing for the purposes of employment relates to our obligations as an employer.

Purpose limitation

We process special category for purposes of substantial public interest as explained above when the processing is necessary for us to fulfil our statutory functions, where it is necessary for complying with or assisting another to comply with a regulatory requirement to establish whether an unlawful or improper conduct has occurred, to protect the public from dishonesty, preventing or detecting unlawful acts or for disclosure to elected representatives.

We are authorised by law to process special category for these purposes. We may process special category collected for any one of these purposes (whether by us or another controller), for any of the other purposes here, providing the processing is necessary and proportionate to that purpose.

If we are sharing data with another controller, we will document that they are authorised by law to process the data for their purpose.

If we are sharing data with a “processor”, we will document their processing and purposes in a contract and data processing schedule.

We will not process special category for purposes incompatible with the original purpose it was collected for.

Data minimisation

We collect special category necessary for the relevant purposes and ensure it is not excessive. The information we process is necessary for and proportionate to our purposes.

Where special category is provided to us or obtained by us, but is not relevant to our stated purposes, we will erase it.

Accuracy

Where we become aware that special category is inaccurate or out of date, having regard to the purpose for which it is being processed, we will take every reasonable step to ensure that data is erased or rectified without delay.

If we decide not to either erase or rectify it, for example because the lawful basis we rely on to process the data means these rights don’t apply, we will document our decision.

Storage limitation

All special category processed by us for the purpose of employment or substantial public interest is, unless retained longer for archiving purposes, retained for the periods set out in our retention schedule.

We determine the retention period for this data based on our legal obligations and the necessity of its retention for our business needs. Our retention schedule is reviewed regularly and updated when necessary.

Integrity and confidentiality (security)

Electronic information is processed within our secure network. Hard copy information is processed in line with our security procedures.

Our electronic systems and physical storage have appropriate access controls applied.

The systems we use to process special category allow us to erase or update special category at any point in time where appropriate.

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Retention and erasure policies

Our retention and erasure practices are set out in our retention schedule.

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APD review date

This policy will be retained for the duration of our processing and for a minimum of 6 months after processing ceases.

This policy will be reviewed annually or revised more frequently if necessary and it was last reviewed in November 2023.

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Additional special category processing

We process special category personal data in other instances where it is not a requirement to keep an appropriate policy document. Our processing of such data respects the rights and interests of the data subjects. We provide clear and transparent information about why we process personal data including our lawful basis for processing in our published privacy notices and staff privacy notice.

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