At Citizens Advice we collect and use your personal information to help solve your problems, improve our services and tackle wider issues in society that affect people’s lives. We only ask for the information we need. We always let you decide what you’re comfortable telling us, explain why we need it, how it will be used to help you and treat it as confidential.
When we record and use your personal information we:
- only access it when we have a good reason
- only share what is necessary and relevant
- do not sell it to anyone
At times we might use or share your information without your permission. If we do, we will always make sure there is a legal basis for it. This could include situations where we have to use or share your information:
- to comply with the law – for example, if a court orders us to share information. This is called ‘legal obligation’.
- to protect someone’s life – for example, sharing information with a paramedic if a client was unwell at our office. This is called ‘vital interests’.
- to carry out our legitimate aims and goals as a charity – for example, to create statistics for our national research. This is called ‘legitimate interests’.
- for us to carry out a task where we are meeting the aims of a public body in the public interest – for example, delivering a government or local authority service. This is called ‘public task’.
- to carry out a contract we have with you – for example, if you’re an employee we might need to store your bank details so we can pay you. This is called ‘contract’.
- to defend our legal rights – for example, sharing information with our legal advisors if there was a complaint that we gave the wrong advice.
We handle and store your personal information in line with the law – including the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.
You can check the main Citizens Advice policy for full details of how we handle personal information.
This page covers how we, as your local charity handle your information in our local offices.
How we collect and store your information
When you contact us for advice or information, we will ask you for your consent to collect your personal data. If you come to see us face to face we will ask you to complete a consent form. If you contact us by phone, we will ask you to confirm consent verbally and if you contact us via our website we will collect your consent via our Contact Us form.
We are responsible for keeping any information collected safe. We operate a system called Casebook. Casebook is The national Citizens Advice charity and our local operating system. Together we are ‘joint data controllers’ for personal information that is stored in our Casebook system. Each local Citizens Advice is an independent charity, and a member of the national Citizens Advice charity. The Citizens Advice membership agreement also requires that the use of your information complies with data protection law. You can find out more about your data rights on the Information Commissioner’s website.
Any information held on paper will be locked in secure storage cabinets until it can be uploaded onto the secure system or destroyed securely.
Where we hold confidential personal information about people who are not clients, for example information relating to volunteers, trustees, and staff. This information is also held in compliance with the law – including the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. Generally this data is held in paper form or as computer records within our secure Microsoft cloud facilities. We are the data controller for this information.
Working on your behalf and sharing your information
There will be circumstances where we need to act on your behalf, for example to help you with a benefit claim or housing problem. In these situations we may need to share information relating to your issue with a third party. This will only be done with your agreement.
When we share your information with third parties, such as housing associations or other organisations we have referred you to, we will do so via secure methods and again with your agreement.
We will only share your information with a third party, without your agreement if we feel you are or you have told us something that leads us to believe you are at serious risk of harm. In these circumstances we may have to share information with the police or social services.
Contacting us about your information
If you have any questions about how your information is collected or used, you can contact our registered office at: Citizens Advice Bucks, 2 Pebble Lane, Aylesbury, Bucks, HP20 2JH or Email: [email protected]
You can contact us to:
- find out what person information we hold about you.
- correct your information if it’s wrong, out of date or incomplete.
- request we delete your information.
- ask us to limit what we do with your data – for example, ask us not to share it if you haven’t asked us already.
- ask us to give you a copy of the data we hold in a format you can use to transfer it to another service.
- ask us stop using your information.
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