Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Fund (EBBS (AF)) and Alternative Fuel Payment Alternative Fund (AFP (AF)) Privacy statement

This page was last updated on 21 February 2023

Who we are

Glasgow City Council 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.  Contact details for our Data Protection Officer can be found on our website at www.glasgow.gov.uk/privacy.

What information do we have and where did we get it from?

We have received personal information about you from the Department of Energy Security & Industrial Strategy (DESNZ). The information we have received consists of the following: a validated application for EBBS (AF) or AFP (AF) comprising name, type of accommodation, address, date of birth, bank account details, application details as submitted by you, and evidence you have uploaded in support of your application on the gov.uk application portal. For more information on how EBBS process your information can be found at gov.uk and search "Apply for energy bill support if you do not get it automatically".

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

We have been provided with your personal information to allow us to confirm your eligibility for EBBS (AF) or AFP (AF) and pay it to you if you are eligible.  We also use your information to verify your identity where required, contact you by post, email or telephone and to maintain our records.   The sharing of the data between local authorities and DESNZ is for the purpose of administration, delivery, reporting, monitoring, evaluation and fraud prevention necessary within the scheme. This may also include an assessment of your liability for council tax on the property you have stated as your sole or main residence on the application.

Legal basis for using your information

We provide these services to you as part of our statutory function as your local authority. You can find more details of our role on our website at www.glasgow.gov.uk/privacy.  Processing your personal information is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest by the council.

Special category data will not be expressly requested in connection with applications for the scheme, but it is possible that co-incident collection and sharing of special category data could occur as a result of information provided by applicants (or third party individuals acting on your behalf) in connection with the applications. This may include information relating to the ethnic origin or data concerning applicant's health or age. To the extent that special category data is collected, it will be processed for reasons of substantial public interest as set out in the Data Protection Act 2018. It is necessary for us to process this information to carry out key functions as set out in law.

Who do we share your information with?

We are legally obliged to safeguard public funds so we are required to verify and check your details internally for fraud prevention. We may share this information with other public bodies for the same purpose.  We are also 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 appropriate.  Your information is also analysed internally to help us improve our services.  This data sharing is in accordance with our Information Use and Privacy Policy and covered in our full privacy statement on our website. It also forms part of our requirements in line with our Records Management Plan approved in terms of the Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011. We will share this information with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

How long do we keep your information for?

We only keep your personal information for the minimum amount of time necessary.  Sometimes this time period is set out in the law, but in most cases it is based on the business need.  We maintain a records retention and disposal schedule which sets out how long we hold different types of information for.   You can view this on our website at www.glasgow.gov.uk/rrds or you can request a hard copy from the contact address stated above.

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:
    I.            you think that we no longer need to hold the information for the purposes for which it was originally obtained 
   II.            you have a genuine objection to our use of your personal information - see Objecting to how we may use your information below  III.            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 direct marketing 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 anyone else's details on this form, 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 confirm your eligibility for EBBS (AF) or AFP (AF) and pay it to you if you are eligible and to maintain our records.   If they want any more information on how we will use their information they can visit our web site at www.glasgow.gov.uk/privacy.

Complaints

If you do not have access to the internet you can contact us on 0141 287 1055 to request hard copies of any of the above documents.

We aim to directly resolve all complaints about how we handle personal information.  However, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office.  Contact details for our Data Protection Officer and for the ICO can be found on our website under www.glasgow.gov.uk/privacy.

More information

For more details on how we process your personal information visit www.glasgow.gov.uk/privacy