Privacy Notice for Electoral Registration

Why are we collecting your personal data?

The Electoral Registration Officer is a data controller and collects the personal data 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. Wealden District Council have a duty to maintain a complete and accurate register throughout the year. We will only collect the personal data we need in order to maintain this register.

What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?

We do this as a task carried out in the public interest to ensure you are registered to be able to vote in any election or referendum for which you are eligible and to comply with the Representation of the People Act 1983, the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 and the Representation of the People Regulations 2001. The law makes it compulsory to provide information to the Electoral Registration Officer for inclusion in the full register.

What personal data do we collect?

We keep records about potential and actual electors, voters, citizens, candidates and their agents, staff employed at an elections. These may be written down, or kept on a computer.

These records may include:

• your name, address, nationality and date of birth;
• unique identifiers (e.g., your National Insurance Number);
• Signatures for absent vote checking;
• scanned application forms, documentary evidence, dates of any letters of correspondence;
• notes about any relevant circumstances that you have told us about;
• your previous or any redirected address;
• details of any other occupants in your home;
• whether you are over 76 or under 16/17;
• whether you have chosen to opt out of the open version of the register;
• bank details and car registration details for staff employed for electoral purposes;
• telephone numbers and email addresses for candidates and agents.

Who will your information be shared with?

The information you provide is held in electoral registers which are managed by electoral registration officers 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 and other National Libraries (Scottish and Welsh)
• UK Statistics Authority
• Electoral Commission
• Boundary Commission for England
• Jury Summoning Bureau
• Elected Representatives (MP, MEPS, Local Councillors)
• Police and Crime Commissioner
• Candidates standing for elections
• Local and National Political Parties
• The Council
• Parish and Community councils
• Police Forces, National Crime Agency
• Public Library or local authority archive services
• Government departments or bodies
• Credit Reference Agencies
• National Fraud Initiative
• Electoral Registration and Returning Officers

We also have to disclose (share) your information with our Software providers, contracted printers and other service providers.

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 lawful reason to see it.

Anyone can inspect the full electoral register:

• Inspection of the register will be under supervision.
• They can take extracts from the register, but only by hand written notes.
• 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.
• Anyone who fails to observe these conditions is committing a criminal offence and will be charged a penalty of up to £5,000.

The open register contains the same information as the full register, but is not used for elections or referendums. It is updated and published every month and can be sold to any person, organisation or company for a wide range of purposes. It is used by businesses and charities for checking names and address details; users of the register include direct marketing firms and also online directory firms.

You can choose whether or not to have your personal details included in the open version of the register; however, they will be included unless you ask for them to be removed. Removing your details from the open register will not affect your right to vote.

Partner organisations

The process of checking citizens’ personal identifiers to ensure eligibility for inclusion in the Electoral Register, is controlled by the Cabinet Office via the IER Digital Service.
This includes:

• The Department for Work and Pensions who use data provided to o verify the identity of new applicants
• The Cabinet Office will inform the old local authority of people who have moved area

Canvass Reform 2020

With the introduction of Canvass Reform, starting with the Annual Canvass in 2020/2021, the Cabinet Office require us to verify that an individual elector’s data matches the data held at the DWP data warehouse. As part of this process your data will be shared with the DWP and Cabinet Office as data processors for the National Data Match.

Data held by our Council Tax, Housing, Benefits & Customer Services Teams will also be used to verify individual electors’ data as part of the Local Data Match.

The data used for the National Data Match includes;

• Full Name
• Date of Birth (if present)
• Address (including postcode)
• Previous Name (if present)

You can find more information about Canvass Reform by following this link
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposals-for-the-reformof-the-annual-canvass

What is the information used for?

• Your records are used to help ensure that we provide you with the service that you need
• Personal data contained in the electoral register will be used to conduct an annual canvass, including issuing Canvass Communication materials to all households and following up with non-responding properties
• Information in the electoral register may be used using the prescribed wording to describe the electoral register and the open/edited register (as included on the voter registration form
• Personal data contained in the electoral register and absent voting lists will be used to issue poll cards in advance of an election
• A postal voter’s signature (where required) and date of birth provided on a postal voting statement will be compared against that postal voter’s signature and date of birth held on the personal identifiers record

Occasions when your information needs to be disclosed (shared)

• To contracted printers to print your Poll Cards, Postal Packs & other electoral materials
• To registered political parties, elected representatives, candidates, agents and other permitted participants who are able to use it for Electoral Purposes only
• Credit reference agencies, the British Library, UK Statistics Authority, the Electoral Commission and other statutory recipients of the Electoral Register
• Details of whether you have voted (but not how you have voted) to those who are entitled in law to receive if after an election
• Where the health and safety of others is at risk
• When the law requires us to pass on information under special circumstances
• Crime prevention or the detection of fraud as part of the National Fraud Initiative

How long do we hold your personal data for?

The Electoral Registration Officer and Returning Officer are obliged 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.