Privacy notice for electoral registration

Data Controller

The Electoral Registration Officer (ERO), Rushmoor Borough Council, is the data controller for the personal information you provide.  You can contact the Elections Team by phone on 01252 398824, via email to elections@rushmoor.gov.uk or by writing to us at Elections Team, Rushmoor Borough Council, Council Offices, Farnborough Road, Farnborough, GU14 7JU. 

You can contact the Council's data protection officer at data.protection@rushmoor.gov.uk

Why we are collecting your data

The ERO for Rushmoor Borough Council is a data controller and collects the personal information you provide for the purpose of registering your right to vote.  You need to be registered to be able to vote in any election or referendum for which you are eligible.

We have a duty to maintain a complete and accurate register throughout the year.  We will only collect the personal data we need from you in order to do this.

What is the legal basis for processing this data?

We collect information under the legal basis of a task carried out in the public interest, as set out in the Representation of the People Act 1983 and related regulations.  Also to comply with the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 (ERA13) and the Representation of the People Regulations 2001 (RPR2001), electoral registration is carried out to ensure you can vote in any election or referendum for which you are eligible.  The ERA13 makes it compulsory for residents to provide information to an ERO for inclusion in the Full Register.  We keep records about potential and actual electors, candidates and their agents, and staff employed at an election or during the annual canvass.  This information may be written down (manual records), kept on a computer (electronic records) data format or both.

These records may include:

• Your name, address, date or birth and nationality
• Unique identifiers (such as your National Insurance number) and signature for absent vote checking
• Scanned application forms, documentary evidence and dates of any letters of correspondence
• Notes about any relevant circumstances that you have told us
• Your previous or any redirected address
• The other occupants in your home
• If you are aged over 76 or 16 or 17
• Whether you have chosen to opt out of the open version of the Register
• Your email and telephone number (used by Electoral Registration Office only)

To verify your identity, the data you provide will be processed by the Individual Electoral Registration Digital Service (IERDS) managed by the Cabinet Office.  As part of this process, your data will be shared with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Cabinet Office's suppliers who are data processors for IERDS.  For more information on this, please read the Cabinet Office's privacy policy.

If we need to process your information for a purpose other than that for which the personal information was collected, we will provide you with information on that other purpose before doing so.

Who will your information be shared with?

The information you provide is held in electoral registers which are managed by the Electoral Registration team who, using information received, keep two registers - the full electoral register and the open (edited) register.

The full register is published once a year and is updated every month and can only be supplied to the following people and organisations:

• British Library, UK Statistics Authority, the Electoral Commission and Boundary Commission for England
• Jury Summoning Bureau
• Registered political parties, elected representatives, candidates standing for election and other permitted participants who are able to use it for electoral purposes only
• Police Forces, National Crime Agency, National Fraud Initiative and Crime Commissioner
• Hampshire County Council archive services
• Government departments or bodies
• Credit reference agencies
• Electoral Registration and Returning Officers
• Software providers and contracted printers to print electoral material*

*Where your personal information is shared with third-party service providers, we require all third parties to take appropriate technical and organisational security measures to protect your personal information and to treat it subject to a duty of confidentially and in accordance with data protection law.  We only allow them to process your personal information for specified purposes and in accordance with our written instructions and we do not allow them to use your personal information for their own purposes.

It is a crime for anyone who has a copy of the full register to pass information from this register on to others, if they do not have a lawful reason to see it.

The full printed copy of the electoral register can be inspected by anyone:

• Inspection of the full register will be under supervision by appointment only
• Handwritten notes may be taken (but not photographs or photocopies)
• Information taken must not be used for direct marketing purposes, in accordance with data protection legislation, unless it has been published in the open version of the register.  Anyone who fails to observe these conditions is committing a criminal offence and will be charged a penalty of up to £5,000

If your details are in the open version of the register, your name and address can be sold to any person, organisation or company for a wide range of purposes.  Your details could be used by businesses and charities for checking name and address details; users of the register include direct marketing firms and online directory firms.

When you register to vote you are automatically added to the open version of the register unless you opt out on application.  You can, however, opt out at any time by contacting the Electoral Registration Team.  Removing your details from the open register does not affect your right to vote. 

How long will we hold your data for?

The Electoral Registration Officer has a legal obligation to process your personal data in relation to preparing for and conducting elections.  Your details will be kept and updated in accordance with our legal obligations and in line with statutory retention periods.  For further information, see our retention guidelines.

Your rights

The Data Protection Act 2018 allows you to find out what information is held about you as long as it is within the specific retention period, on paper and on computer records.  This is known as 'right of subject to access' and applies to your electoral services records along with all other personal records.

You are entitled to request a copy of any information about you that we hold.  Any such requests must be made in writing.  You are entitled to receive a copy of your records free of charge, within a month.

In certain circumstances access to your records may be limited, for example, if the records you have asked for contain information relating to another person.

If the information we hold about you is inaccurate you have a right to have this corrected and you have the right to request completion of incomplete data.

Being added to the electoral register is a legal requirement.  The right to object to the processing of your personal data cannot be applied to information where the collection of or the nature of the processing is specified in electoral law. 

You do have the right to request the erasure of your personal data in certain circumstances ('right to be forgotten') such as phone and email details.  However, the retention of personal information such as a phone number or email address can help us to resolve a query with your entry on the register and provide you with key information by email during an election period.

The Data Protection Act 2018 allows you other rights concerning your personal information; for example you also have the right to be told if we have made a mistake whilst processing your data and we will self-report breaches to the Commissioner.

Further details on data protection and your rights can be found on our website http://www.rushmoor.gov.uk/dataprotection.

If you are dissatisfied with how we have used your personal information you have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office - casework@ico.org.uk.  You can also phone their helpline on 0303 123 1113.

Whether provision of data is part of statutory or contractual requirement

We are required to keep a record of your personal data in order to comply with the ERA2013, RPR2001 and Electoral Registration (Disclosure of Electoral Registers) Regulations 2013.

NOTE: Everyone working for Electoral Services has a legal duty to keep and process information about you in accordance with the law.