Privacy notice – Electoral Services Canvass and Election Staff

What we do

Electoral Services are responsible for producing the electoral register and administering elections. This involves the employment of canvassers to visit properties and helping residents complete their registration forms. Other temporary staff may be employed in the office to process forms and conduct other admin work. At election time we employ hundreds of people in temporary roles such as; working in polling stations, opening postal votes and at the counting of the votes.

The law requires employers to collect various information from employees. We are also required to pay people for their services and therefore a certain amount of information is necessary.

Who are collecting your data?

Electoral Registration Officer and Returning Officer.

The laws that govern the collection and use of this data

The following is a list of all primary and secondary legislation relevant to the collection, processing and retention of personal data:

• Local Government Act 1972
• Representation of the People Act 1983 and additional regulations
• Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013
• Regulations for specific elections eg. Local, parliamentary, GLA etc
• Employment Rights Act 1996
• Equal Pay Act 1970
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995
• National Minimum Wage Act 1998
• Working Time Direction 1999
• Employment Relations Act 1999
• Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006

Purpose for collecting your data

Name, address, phone number and email

We need this information so we can allocate you to a job, and contact you about it. For polling staff we will share your phone number and/or email address with the other staff allocated to your polling station so you can communicate with each other, which is an important requirement of the role.

National insurance number, passport (and visa if relevant)

We need this information to check your right to work in the UK. Employers are legally required to make this check before employing anybody. We can face considerable fines if we employ someone who is not entitled to work. The national insurance number is also required to process your payment. We have to notify HMRC when a payment is made to you as it affects your tax and national insurance contributions.

Bank details

We need to know your bank details so that we can pay you.

Other information including – whether you drive a car, where you would like to work etc.

This information is useful when determining which electoral jobs are suitable for you.

Who do we share the data with?

Your data will not necessarily be shared outside of our service. In certain situations however it may be necessary to do so. Agencies we may share your data with are:

• Lewisham payroll and pension service

• HMRC

• colleagues of polling station staff

• the police (on request).

How long do we hold your data?

The Electoral Registration Officer and Returning Officer are obliged to process your personal data in relation to preparing for and conducting elections. Your details will be kept and updated in accordance with our legal obligations and in line with statutory retention periods. For a copy of our Retention Policy please contact us directly.

Election and canvass staff data will be kept continuously until that member of staff expresses they no longer wish to work with us, or if they request their details to be removed.

Every year we conduct an audit of electoral staff and remove names from our database who have not worked with us for 2 years.

Your rights

You are entitled to request a copy of any information about you that we hold. Any such requests must be made in writing. If the information we hold about you is inaccurate you have a right to have this corrected and you have the right to request completion of incomplete data.

You have the right to request the deletion of your personal data in certain circumstances (‘right to be forgotten’). You have the right to request that we stop, or restrict the processing of your personal data, in certain circumstances. Where possible we will seek to comply with your request, but we may be required to hold or process information to comply with a legal requirement.

If you are dissatisfied with how the Electoral Registration Officer/Returning Officer have used your personal information you have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at casework@ico.org.uk

The collection and provision of your data is a statutory requirement

All employers are required to collect information about employees in order to comply with UK employment legislation.

Contact us

Jamie Baker, Electoral Services Manager, is the data controller registered with the ICO and can be contacted using the details below:

Lewisham Electoral Services
Laurence House
Catford
SE6 9SE