Armed Forces Covenant privacy notice

What this document is for

This privacy notice provides details on how we, Norfolk County Council (the County Council), uses your personal information for the purposes of the Norfolk Armed Forces Covenant.

By ‘use’ we mean the various ways your personal information may be processed including storing and sharing the information.

Further details

We also provide the following details in our general privacy notice on our website:

Who we are
How long we use your information for
Your rights under the UK GDPR and
How to exercise them

You can also ask us for a copy of this information.

What we use your information for

We use your information under the Armed Forces Covenant which focuses on providing support to people who are identified as being part of HM Armed Forces community (this includes serving individuals, their immediate family, veterans and their immediate family). The Armed Forces Covenant uses a multi-agency approach to protect vulnerable people within the Armed Forces community.

Working with other organisations, mainly within the charitable sector to sign post individuals to the support they need.
Advocating on behalf of individuals unable to access statutory services delivered by Norfolk County Council, District Councils within Norfolk and health services delivered by NHS.
With your consent using anonymised data in the form of case studies to help improve understanding of the issues faced by members of the Armed Forces community in relation to accessing statutory services within the County.

We also use this information to assess the quality of our services and evaluate and improve our policies and procedures.

We may also use information in other ways compatible with the above.

What personal data we collect and use about you

We may collect and use the following personal information:

Your name, date of birth, gender and address;
Your living arrangements;
Details of relevant family members and personal relationships;
Your education;
Service life, including confirmation of service through a third party.

We may also collect and use information about your:

health and medical history including substance misuse, emotional and mental health

This information is classed as “special category data” under the GDPR. We may only collect these data when it is relevant and for the purposes described above.

We do not collect information concerning criminal convictions and offences.

The GDPR includes safeguards to protect the use of your special category data. Further details can be found on our website in the document named ‘Special category data and criminal offences data policy’ which sets out our procedures for compliance with the principles of the GDPR and the retention and erasure of this information.

Who provides this information

We primarily obtain personal information from yourself; however we may also receive information from:

public health agencies such as NHS / GP
Ministry of Defence (MOD)
district local authorities
school and/or college
other relevant agencies including relevant charities.

Who we share your information with

For the purposes of the discharge of duties under the Armed Forces Covenant, personal information is shared securely and only where strictly necessary and with relevant agencies. These agencies may include:

public health agencies such as NHS / GP
Ministry of Defence (MOD)
district local authorities
school and/or college
other relevant agencies including relevant charities

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required to do so by applicable law.

Your personal information may also be given to third parties contracted by the County Council to provide a service to the County Council. These service providers are known as data processors and have a legal obligation under GDPR and to the County Council to look after your personal information and only use it for providing that service.

How the law protects you and the legal basis for processing your information

We have legal grounds under the GDPR to process this information because it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest and the task or function has a clear basis in law in that the County Council has statutory duties under the Armed Forces Act 2006 and the Armed Forces Covenant 2011. In addition, a Duty of Due Regard associated with the Armed Forces Act was introduced in 2021/22 specifically relating to access to Health, Education and Housing.

We have legal grounds to process (including share) special category data because it is necessary in the exercise of a statutory function as noted above.

How long will we keep your personal information for

We will hold your personal information for up to 1 year or for as long as we are working with you, whichever is the shortest period. At the end of this period, your information will be securely deleted and/or destroyed.

If we need to use your information for research or reports, your information will be anonymised and any information taken from notes (handwritten or typed) during any consultation sessions will be securely destroyed. The information will continue to be used in a summarised and anonymised form in any research reports or papers that are published. The anonymised information in the papers may be of historic interest and may be held in public archives indefinitely.

How we keep your information

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine need to know it.

The information is stored electronically, on the County Council’s network including records management systems.

We do not process your information outside of the UK and European Economic Area.

Automated decision making

We do not make automated decisions about you and your family.

Changes to this notice

We may amend this privacy notice at any time so please review it frequently. The date below will be amended each time this notice is updated.

This notice was created on 4 May 2022.