Privacy notice for Forward Planning

What do we use the information for?

We collect, process and hold your personal information in order to provide our services effectively. This includes preparing Local Plans and other planning documents that guide development decisions in the East Riding, specifically: 

• To inform you of opportunities to engage in the scope and content of planning documents
• To keep you updated on the process of preparing planning documents.

We recognise that your personal information is important to you, and we take our responsibilities for ensuring that we collect and manage it proportionately, correctly and safely very seriously.

What information do we hold and use?

We collect and process the following information:

• Personal information (including full name, full residential address)
  
• Location data (including business postal addresses and postcode, if applicable) 
• Contact details (such as email address and telephone number)
• Comments from individuals and / or organisations in relation to planning policy matters
  
• Characteristics (such as disability) where this has been voluntarily disclosed as part of a response to a consultation document
  
• Requests for planning advice. 

On what grounds do we use the information?

Forward Planning collects and lawfully processes your personal information under the following:

• Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 
• Town and Country Planning (England) Regulations 2012.

 We process personal data for the following reasons:

• GDPR Article 6(1)(a) – the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes
• GDPR Article 6(1)(c) – processing is necessary for compliance with legal obligation to which the East Riding of Yorkshire Council is subject
• GDPR Article 6(1)(e) – processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest in the exercise of official authority vested in the East Riding of Yorkshire Council. 

We process special category data for the following reason:

• GDPR Article 9(2)(a) - the data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes, except where Union or Member State law provide that the prohibition referred to in paragraph 1 may not be lifted by the data subject.

How do we collect this information?

We, or one of our partners, may collect information in the following ways: 

• Paper, electronic or online application / consultation forms
• Email
• Telephone
• Letter
• Face to face.

Who we share your information with?

We may disclose your information (and your clients' where applicable) to others, but only where this is necessary either to comply with our legal obligations or as permitted by Data Protection legislation. We may share it with other public service bodies including town and parish councils, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities / Planning Inspectorate, Programme Officer, Neighbourhood Plan Examiner  and other local authorities.  

The reasons why we may share your data with other public bodies are as follows:

• To support town or parish councils to preparing a Neighbourhood Plan or Order that may be of interest to you
• To assist in the examination of planning documents. Regulation 22 of The Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 requires local planning authorities to submit copies of representations (consultation responses) to the Secretary of State and Programme Officer
• To assist in the preparation of any joint planning documents prepared with other local authorities or partners. Data may need to be shared to fulfil the requirements of preparing planning documents but data will only be shared if necessary
• To improve our understanding of your needs to enable us to inform you of other relevant services
• To monitor and improve our performance and delivery of services
• For the prevention and or detection of crime
• Where necessary to protect individuals from the risk of harm or injury 
• Where otherwise permitted under the General Data Protection legislation.

We will only disclose your sensitive or confidential information to a third party if we are legally required to do so, or where we have good reason to believe that failing to share the information would put you or someone else at risk of harm.

We will not pass your personal information to external organisations for marketing or sales purposes or for any commercial use without your prior expressed consent.

Consultation responses are published on the council’s website. However, please be advised that we will publish your name, organisation (where applicable), client (where applicable) and comments only. All other contact details/ information will be redacted before being published.

To enable the forward planning team to carry out their functions, they use a housing system called ActiveH which is supplied by MIS-Active Management Systems Limited.

MIS-Active Management Systems Limited (external website)

How long do we store it and is it secure?

Forward planning has a retention schedule in place to ensure that information is only held for as long as it is needed. We will not keep your information for longer than is required to by law. Your information will be disposed of in a controlled and secure manner in accordance with the council’s Records Management and Data Quality Policy. The council’s IT security and confidentiality policies ensure that your information is protected, and accessed only by staff directly involved in your case. 

For information on how long your information will be held visit the retention page. 

What rights do you have?

The rights that you have depend upon the grounds upon which we collected your information. All of the rights you could have outlined upon the data protection rights page. In most cases, people who have been involved with forward planning will have the following rights:

• The right of access – you are entitled to see the information we hold about you 
  
• The right to rectification – we will amend the information accordingly, if any information the service holds about you is incorrect
  
• The right to restrict processing – you may wish to limit how we use your data
• The right to object – in addition to the right to limit the use of your data, you also have a right to object to the use of your data for certain actions
• The right to erasure / right to be forgotten – in certain circumstance, you may be able to ask for some of the information we hold to be deleted. The service has determined that all requests to permanently delete a service user record will be dealt with on an individual basis.

To exercise any of your above rights, please visit the data protection rights pages for more information.

Where can I find out more?

If you would like to know more about how the council uses information, your rights or have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, we request that you raise your concern with us in the first instance; contact details are available on the general privacy information page. Alternatively, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest and they handle public concerns regarding organisations information rights practices.  

Information Commissioner’s Office (external website) 

When was this privacy notice last updated?

We will continually review and update this privacy notice to reflect any changes in our services, feedback from customers, and to comply with any changes in the law. This privacy notice was last updated on 20 October 2022.