People and communities

Emergency Planning Unit Privacy Notice

City of York Council (CYC) current data protection notification is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) – reference Z5809563. We regularly review this privacy notice, and it was last updated in April 2026.

CYC is committed to ensuring that your information is handled in accordance with the principles set out in data protection legislation and guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

This privacy notice tells you what to expect when we process your information.

CYC is the controller for this information unless we specifically state otherwise in this privacy notice.

You can contact the council’s Data Protection Officer at:

West Offices
Station Rise
York
YO1 6GA

Telephone: 01904 555719.

Email: information.governance@york.gov.uk.

This privacy notice should be read in conjunction with other CYC privacy notices that are available in our Privacy Notice and/or policies and procedures.

When appropriate we will provide a ‘just in time’ notice to cover any additional processing activities not mentioned in this privacy notice.

How we collect your information

We get information about you from the following sources:

  • directly from you
  • from other departments within the council
  • from third parties acting on your behalf such as family member(s), advocates, councillors, MPs etc
  • from other organisations such as NHS and the Police
  • from our commissioned partners or contractors who undertake work on our behalf

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What personal data we process and why

We only process the information that is necessary such as:

  • name
  • date of birth
  • address
  • telephone number
  • email address
  • any specialist skills such as first aid etc
  • photo for identification - we take the photo of community emergency plan teams and only use it to produce and provide emergency identification badges
  • health data
  • disability data
  • safeguarding concerns

We will ask for your consent to take part in surveys, consultation or other events to get your feedback, about the service and support you and your family has received. You can withdraw your consent to these at any time by contacting emergency.planning@york.gov.uk.

The Emergency Planning Unit supports the City of York Council in undertaking statutory duties as a category 1 responder organisation under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, by preparing for, responding to, and recovering from emergencies. This includes:

  • contacting you during an emergency
  • routinely checking to ensure we have the correct details
  • supporting us in preparing residents for emergencies
  • providing a link into communities for the council to inform and have a two-way dialogue during an emergency
  • listing potential rest centres which may be used during an emergency
  • Emergency Rest Centres - we collect information about the emergency rest centres in York which may be used during an incident as a place of information, refuge and potentially for people to sleep during an emergency in a specific location in the city
  • Community Emergency Plans - across the city we work with communities to develop emergency preparedness, one of the ways of developing community preparedness is by developing community emergency plans on a Word document - these are emergency plans written by communities

You can withdraw your consent to be a volunteer at any time by contacting emergency.planning@york.gov.uk.

We will inform you if your call is being recorded and you can find more details about our call recording in our Call Recording Privacy Notice.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

We may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to support or enhance council services. Where AI is involved in a process that directly affects your interaction with us, we will inform you before your user journey begins. This ensures transparency and helps maintain trust in how we use AI.

Our use of AI complies with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), including the principles of lawfulness, fairness, transparency, accountability, and accuracy. We conduct Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) where AI systems are likely to result in high risks to individuals’ rights and freedoms, such as automated decision-making or profiling.

If generative AI tools are used, we do not use personal or end-user data to train AI models. This helps ensure compliance with the purpose limitation and data minimisation principles under UK GDPR.

AI for Staff Productivity and Accessibility

Where AI tools are used solely by staff to assist with drafting, research, or accessibility - for example, to improve writing efficiency or summarise information - these uses do not form part of a business process that affects service delivery or decision-making. As such, no specific notification will be provided for these internal productivity uses.

These uses are considered low-risk and do not involve automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects. They are also subject to internal governance and safeguards to ensure responsible use.

Examples include:

  • Drafting internal reports or meeting notes
  • Summarising lengthy documents for quicker review
  • Assisting with spelling, grammar, or formatting tasks

We may use your information to create reports and statistics that are anonymous and cannot be linked back to you or individuals such as:

  • for statistical analysis
  • for statutory returns
  • for audit frameworks
  • to see how the council and its partners are supporting individuals
  • to help design better services
  • to inform funding decisions

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Automated decision-making

We do not carry out any automated decision-making in the Emergency Planning Unit.

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Collecting information automatically

Please see our Cookies Policy for further information about the information we collect automatically when you use our website.

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Children’s information

Where we provide services directly to children or young people, the information in the relevant parts of this notice applies to children and young people, as well as adults.

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Lawful basis for processing your personal data

Any personal data and special category data that we process about individuals is done so in accordance with one or more of the following Articles 6 and 9 of the UK GDPR and Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018).

  • Article 6(1)
    • (a) Consent: the individual has given clear consent for the council to process their personal data for a specific purpose.
    • (c) Legal obligation: the processing is necessary for the council to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations).
    • (d) Vital interests: the processing is necessary to protect someone’s life.
    • (e) Public task: the processing is necessary for the council to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law.
  • Article 9(2)
    • (a) Explicit consent
    • (c) Vital interests
    • (g) Reasons of substantial public interest (with a basis in law)

This is supported by Schedule1, Part 2 (6) of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the following legal framework:

  • The Civil Contingencies Act 2004

Some of the Schedule 1 conditions for processing special category data require an Appropriate Policy Document (APD) to be in place, which sets out and explains the procedures for securing compliance with the principles in Article 5 and policies regarding the retention and erasure of such personal data. This document explains this processing and satisfies the requirements of Schedule 1, Part 4 of the DPA 2018 and supplements this privacy notice.

Our Appropriate Policy Document provides further information about this processing.

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How long we keep your personal data

We will only keep your information for as long as it is needed then it will be securely and confidentially deleted or disposed of.

You can find details on how long the council keeps records in our Retention Schedule.

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Data sharing

We will only share your information where it is appropriate to, with:

  • other CYC services
  • other councils, government departments and agencies including Civil Contingencies Act 2004 category 1 and 2 responders, such as North Yorkshire Police, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, Yorkshire Ambulance Service, utilities providers
  • other organisations such as NHS
  • third parties including our data processors, partners or contractors who undertake work on our behalf
  • internal and external auditors

In some circumstances, such as under a court order or safeguarding, we are legally obliged to share your information.

We will always satisfy ourselves that we have a lawful basis on which to share the information and document our decision-making.

Additionally, we are required under the Public Records Act 1958 (as amended) to transfer records to the City or National Archives (TNA) for permanent preservation. Full consideration will be given to Data Protection and Freedom of Information legislation when making decisions about whether such records should be open to the public.

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Data processors and/or third parties

When we have third parties providing parts or all of our services, systems, software, platforms,applications (apps) etc for us, we have contracts or agreements in place with them. These include:

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Transfers of personal data

We do not routinely transfer personal data or special categories of personal data outside of the UK but when this is necessary, we ensure that we have appropriate safeguards in place and that it is done in accordance with the UK data protection and privacy legislation.

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How we protect your information

We're committed to keeping your information safe and secure. There are several ways we do this, such as:

  • IT security safeguards such as firewalls, encryption, and anti-virus software
  • on-site security safeguards to protect physical files and electronic equipment
  • training for all staff and elected councillors
  • policies and procedures

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Your rights in relation to this processing

To find out about your rights under Data Protection law, you can go to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) For the public | ICO

You can also find information about your rights at Our Privacy Notice – City of York Council

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, want to exercise your rights, or if you have a complaint about how your information has been used, please contact us on email: information.governance@york.gov.uk, or on telephone: 01904 555719, or write to:

Data Protection Officer
City of York Council
West Offices
Station Rise
York YO1 6GA

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Also see

Data Protection Officer

West Offices, Station Rise, York, YO1 6GA

Telephone: 01904 555719

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