Choiceworks Privacy Notice

Who we are?

Glasgow City Council (GCC) is a local authority established under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. Its head office is located at City Chambers, George Square, Glasgow G2 1DU, United Kingdom, and you can contact our Data Protection Officer by post at this address, by email and by telephone on  0141 287 1055.

Why do we need your personal information and what do we do with it?

The Council is responsible for administering funding for economic development on behalf of the Scottish and UK Government.  Specifically, the Council receives funding from the Scottish Government's 'No One Left Behind' funding strategy and the UK Government's 'Shared Prosperity Fund' to support local residents who meet the relevant eligibility criteria.

The Council funds a number of organisations to provide employability programmes or services in Glasgow. Further detail on information sharing with these organisations is noted below under 'Who do we share your information with'.

We require your personal information to allow us to assess your eligibility to access these services, monitor your progress and report outcomes to the Scottish or UK Government. This information may be provided directly by you or by the organisation(s) providing you with these services.

The types of information that we require are contained within our registration form and include the following categories of personal data:

• Contact information (name, address, telephone numbers and email address)
• Gender
• Nationality
• Parental information
• Workplace and education information (national insurance numbers, education (ISCED) level, employment and economic status, right to work status)

We will also ask you to provide more sensitive personal data which includes the following:

• Equalities data (ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, trans status, disabilities). Please note, providing this information is optional.
• Criminal conviction data
• Whether you are an armed forces veteran
• Asylum seeker status
• Refugee status
• Family circumstances (parental status, number and age of dependent children, any disabilities within the family, access to funded childcare)
• Whether you are homeless or affected by housing exclusion
• Details of any long-term physical illness or conditions
• Details of any mental health issues, including, substance related conditions 
• Details of your work experience
• Whether you are a primary carer and caring responsibilities
• Whether you have been in care
• Details of your access to transport and childcare

In addition to our reporting requirement, this information may be used by delivery agents to identify services and supports which are relevant to you.

We also use your information to verify your identity where required, contact you by post, email or telephone and to maintain our records.

Legal basis for using your information:

These services are provided in terms of the council's statutory functions as a local authority, more details of which can be found on our website.  Processing your personal information is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest by the Council. In terms of our reporting obligations, processing your personal information is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the council is subject.

We also need to process more sensitive personal information about you for reasons of substantial public interest as set out in the Data Protection Act 2018. It is necessary for us to process it to carry out key functions as set out in law.

If you do not provide us with the information we have asked for then you will be unable to access these services.

Who do we share your information with?

As explained above, the conditions of funding for these services requires us to assess your eligibility for the services, monitor your progress and report outcomes We are therefore required to share your information with the Scottish Government or UK Government. For audit purposes, we are required to provide the detailed information noted above.

When you apply to access these services, the relevant organisation is required to share the above information with the Council. This information is inputted to and held securely on a Council database. Where you receive support from more than one organisation, each organisation will have access to the database to ensure that (i) you meet the eligibility criteria; and (ii) to update any changes in your circumstances. Access to certain information may be restricted and it will only be granted for the time that you are in receipt of these services.

Although the organisations we fund may change over time, employability services are currently provided by the following organisations:

• Jobs and Business Glasgow
• Glasgow Life
• Clyde Gateway
• Enable
• Bridges Programmes
• One Parent Families Scotland
• Connect Community Trust
• Wheatley Group
• Glasgow Council for Voluntary Services
• Health and Social Care Partnership

Please note, we will review and update this list regularly.

Further detail on how each organisation processes your personal data can be found on their respective websites. In addition, some services will be delivered in-house by council departments who will have the same access to your information as explained above.

The Council has implemented technical and security measures to ensure that your personal information is protected. This includes storing the information within a secure database and only granting access to the limited number of individuals who require access. Where it is appropriate to do so, we will also enter into contractual relationships with external organisations requiring that your personal information is handled in accordance with Data Protection Legislation. 

In addition, we are legally obliged to safeguard public funds and your information will be checked internally for fraud prevention and verification purposes and may be shared with other public bodies for the same purpose.  We are legally obliged to share certain data with other public bodies such as HMRC and will do so where the law requires this; we will also generally comply with requests for specific information from other regulatory and law enforcement bodies where this is necessary and proportionate.  Information is also analysed internally in order to provide management information, inform service delivery reform and similar purposes.  This is in accordance with the council's Information Use and Privacy Policy, the privacy statement set out in full on our website, and the provisions of our Records Management Plan approved in terms of the Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011. 

How long do we keep your information for?

The council maintains a records retention and disposal schedule which sets out how long we hold different types of information for.  This is available on the council's website (PDF, 4 MB)(opens new window) or you can request a hard copy from the contact address below.

Your rights under data protection law:

Access to your information

You have the right to request a copy of the personal information that we hold about you. 

Correcting your information

We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date. Therefore you may ask us to correct any personal information about you that you believe does not meet these standards.

Deletion of your information

You have the right to ask us to delete personal information about you where:

• you think that we no longer need to hold the information for the purposes for which it was originally obtained
• you have a genuine objection to our use of your personal information - see Objecting to how we may use your information below
• our use of your personal information is contrary to law or our other legal obligations.

Objecting to how we may use your information

You have the right at any time to tell us to stop using your personal information for service evaluation purposes.

Restricting how we may use your information

in some cases, you may ask us to restrict how we use your personal information. This right might apply, for example, where we are checking the accuracy of personal information that we hold about you or we are assessing the objection you have made to our use of your information. This right might also apply if we no longer have a basis for using your personal information but you don't want us to delete the data. Where this right is realistically applied will mean that we may only use the relevant personal information with your consent, for legal claims or where there are other public interest grounds to do so.

Please contact us as stated above if you wish to exercise any of these rights.

Information you have given us about other people:

If you have provided us with anyone else's information, please make sure that you have told them that you have given their information to Glasgow City Council.  We will only use this information to assess your own entitlement to these services.  If they want any more information on how we will use their information they can visit our website.

Complaints:

We aim to directly resolve all complaints about how we handle personal information. If your complaint is about how we have handled your personal information, you can contact our Data Protection Officer by email or by telephone on 0141 287 1055.

However, you also have the right to lodge a complaint about data protection matters with the Information Commissioner's Office, who can be contacted by post at:  

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF.

By phone on 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745. Visit their website (opens new window) for more information.

If your complaint is not about a data protection matter you can find details on how to make a complaint on our website.

More information:

For more details on how we process your personal information you can find this on our website.

If you do not have access to the internet you can contact us via telephone to request hard copies of any of our documents.