Freedom of information

Information charter

This information charter sets out the standards you can expect from Harrow Council when we request or hold information ("personal data") about you.

"Personal data" is information that relates to identifiable living individuals. It does not include information relating to dead people, groups of people, organisations or businesses.

The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 regulate the management of personal data.

We may need to handle personal information about you so that we can provide better services for you. This is how we look after that information.

We:

  • make sure you know why we need it;
  • ask only for what we need, and not to collect too much or irrelevant information;
  • protect the information and make sure nobody has access to it who shouldn't;
  • let you know if we share it with other organisations to give you better public services - and if you can say no;
  • make sure we don't keep it longer than necessary; and
  • we don't make your personal information available for commercial use without your permission.

In return, we ask you to:

  • give us accurate information; and
  • tell us as soon as possible if there are any changes, such as a new address.

This helps us to keep your information reliable and up to date.

You can get more details from the data protection officer on:

  • how to find out what information we hold about you and how to ask us to correct any mistakes;
  • agreements we have with other organisations for sharing information;
  • circumstances where we can pass on your personal information without telling you, for example, to prevent and detect crime or to produce anonymised statistics;
  • our instructions to staff on how to collect, use and delete your personal information;
  • how we check the information we hold is accurate and up to date; and
  • how to make a complaint.

When we ask you for information, we will keep to the law, including the Data Protection Act 2018. For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data-sharing issues, you can contact the Information Commissioner.

Data protection officer