Joint committees and partnerships - Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner

What personal information do we hold?

The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) and his staff attend various meetings and information-sharing forums.

Meetings involve organisations in the public, private and community/voluntary/charity sector. This is part of our public duty to do the following:

Secure an efficient and effective police force;
Bring together community safety and criminal justice partners;
Make sure organisations take a joined-up approach to local priorities.

We get information from the police and other organisatons at these meetings.

The list, below, gives examples of the type of meetings, which the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) attends. Please note, this list is not exhaustive.

Meetings include the following:

Briefings from the police force on major incidents of note
Information provided during police station visits
Meetings with the Chief Constable attended by the PCC and other office staff
Tees Rural Crime Forum
Cleveland Strategic Hate Crime Incidents Group, chaired by the PCC
Meetings of the Cleveland and Durham Local Criminal Justice Partnership

On occasion, we may obtain personal information about victims, offenders and their family members at these meetings. The data we hold may include the following:

Identity data: name, gender, age, marital status, nationality;
Contact details data: address, email address, telephone number;
Family data: information about family composition and dependents;
Special category data: racial or ethnic origin, mental and physical health, details of injuries or medication/treatment received, political beliefs, religious beliefs, trade union affiliation, genetic data and data concerning sexual life or orientation;
Criminal offence data: details of criminal convictions, arrests and cautions.

How do we collect your personal information?

We collect information via the minutes of meetings, meeting papers, briefing notes and telephone call records, either sent to us via email or obtained in paper copies at meetings.

For what purposes do we use your personal data?

We usually attend meetings to do the following:

Secure an efficient and effective police force;
Bring together community safety and criminal justice partners;
Make sure local organisations take a joined up approach to local priorities
Hold the Chief Constable to account.

What is the legal basis for our use of your personal information?

The OPCC is a public authority and has certain powers and responsibilities. As a result, we process personal data when using our official authority and/or performing tasks in the public interest.

The Police Reform & Social Responsibility Act 2011 contains our public duty for holding the Chief Constable to account.

On what basis do we use special category data?

The OPCC may sometimes process data about you which is sensitive. This is known as special category data (as detailed above).

Special category data requires higher levels of protection. In addition, we must have further justification for collecting, storing and using it.

We only process this type of data when we are involved in joint committees and forums for the following reasons:

It necessary for reasons of substantial public interest; or
It is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims; or
You have made the information; or
It is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes.

We may need to approach you for written consent to allow processing of certain sensitive personal data. In these circumstances, we will provide full details of the personal data which we require and tell you why it is needed. This will allow you to carefully consider whether you wish to consent.

On what basis do we use information about criminal convictions?

Information about criminal conviction requires higher levels of protection. As a result, we need to have further justification for collecting, storing and using it.

We will only process this type of data during the course of our involvement in joint committees and forums on the following basis:

It is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest; or
It is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims; or
The individual makes the information public; or
It is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes.

How do we handle personal information?

We handle your personal information according to Part 2 of the UK Data Protection Act 2018. This clause applies the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) standards for processing data considered to be ‘general data’.

Your personal data is held securely on our computer systems or in physical files. It is accessed by our staff, partners, contractors and volunteers when they need it for a lawful purpose.

The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner is committed to ensuring that the personal and sensitive information it holds about individuals is accurate, up to date, used only for the purpose intended and securely protected from inappropriate access.

We regularly review your personal information and assess whether it is lawful for us to continue to retain it. When your information is no longer required for any purpose listed in this notice or there is no longer a lawful purpose for processing it, we will securely destroy it.

We have a commitment to ensuring that you can find out about your personal information, be given access to it and have the right to challenge its accuracy.

Who do we share your personal information with?

We will not share your information with any third party. Please note, if your organisation obtains funding, the OPCC will publish details in a decision record form on the website.

How do we keep your personal information safe?

The OPCC takes the security of your personal information very seriously.

We use a variety of security measures, including encryption and access controls. This helps us to protect the security, integrity and availability of your information.

As a result, we work hard to maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect your information in line with the Act.

We restrict access to areas, where we store personal information, to our own and partner agency staff. These areas are only accessible to people holding the appropriate identification.