• Part one – electoral registration
• Part two – elections
• General

Part one – electoral registration

Why we are collecting your data

The Electoral Registration Officer is a data controller and collects the personal data you provide for the purpose of registering your right to vote. You need to be registered to be able to vote in any election or referendum for which you are eligible. We have a duty to maintain a complete and accurate register throughout the year. We will only collect the personal data we need from you, in order to do this.

What is the legal basis for processing this data?

We do this in the performance of a task carried out in the public interest and in the exercise of our official duty under the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 and Representation of the People Regulations 2001.

This ensures you are registered to vote in any election or referendum for which you are eligible. The law makes it compulsory to provide information to an electoral registration officer for inclusion in the full register.

We keep records about potential and actual voters, citizens, candidates, election agents and staff employed at elections. These may be written down, or kept on a computer.

The records may include:

• your name, address, nationality, date of birth, telephone number and email address
• unique identifiers (such as National Insurance Number). Signatures for absent vote checking
• scanned application forms, documentary evidence and any letters of correspondence
• notes about any relevant circumstances that you have told us
• your previous or any redirected address
• the other occupants in your home
• if you are over 75 or under 18
• whether you have chosen to opt out of the open version of the register

Who will your information be shared with?

The information you provide is held in the electoral register which is managed by the Electoral Registration Officer who, using information received, keeps two registers – the full electoral register and the open (edited) register.

The full register is published annually and is updated at various points during the year. By law, it can only be supplied to the following people and organisations:

• British Library
• UK Statistics Authority
• Electoral Commission
• Boundary Commission for England
• Jury Summoning Bureau
• Elected Representatives (MP, MEPS, Local Councillors)
• Police and Crime Commissioner
• Candidates standing for elections
• Local and National Political Parties
• The Council
• Parish and Town councils
• Police
• Forces and the National Crime Agency
• Public Library or local authority archive services
• Government departments or bodies
• Credit Reference Agencies
• National Fraud Initiative
• Other Electoral Registration and Returning Officers

To verify your identity, the data you provide will be processed by the Individual Electoral Registration Digital Service managed by the Cabinet Office. As part of this process your data will be shared with the Department of Work and Pensions and the Cabinet Office suppliers that are data processors for the Individual Electoral Registration Digital Service. More information.

We also disclose (share) your information with our Software providers and contracted printers:

• Civica Xpress. 303 Sperry Way, Stonehouse Business Park, Stonehouse, GL10 3UT
• Civica Electoral Services. The Election Centre, 33 Clarendon Road, London, N8 0NW

Civica Electoral Services receive your data to produce electoral documentation such as poll cards, postal votes and canvass forms. They also receive your completed canvass forms if you return them via reply paid envelopes during the annual canvass period. Civica Electoral Services scan the completed forms onto our Electoral Management Software system which we download onto our register. Once the forms are scanned they are stored until the publication of the register which is 1 December of that year.

We will not ordinarily send your personal data outside of the European Economic Area. However, if you are an overseas elector, we may write to you at your location e.g. to send you a postal vote.

It is a crime for anyone who has a copy of the full register to pass information from this register onto others, if they do not have a lawful reason to see it.

Anyone can inspect the full electoral register:

• Inspection of the register will be under supervision
• They can take extracts from the register, but only by handwritten notes
• Information taken must not be used for direct marketing purposes, in accordance with data protection legislation, unless it has been published in the open version
• Anyone who fails to observe these conditions is committing a criminal offence and may be charged a penalty of up to £5,000

The Open register contains the same style of information as the full register, but less of it due to many people “opting out”. The Open register is not used for elections or referendums. It is updated and published every month and can be sold to any person, organisation or company for a wide range of purposes. It is used by businesses and charities for checking names and address details; users of the register include direct marketing firms and also online directory firms.

You can choose whether or not to have your personal details excluded from the open version of the register; however, they will be included unless you ask for them to be removed. Removing your details from the open register will not affect your right to vote.

The Annual Canvass

Each year at the start of the canvass process all Electoral Registration Officers have a legal responsibility to complete a “data matching step”. 

This is to help identify properties where the residents are more likely to have changed since the previous canvassing process. Information obtained will determine the most effective method or Route to be used to canvass the property.  For national and local data matching, the match is linked to an individual. 

There are two categories of data matching:

1. National data matching with Department of Work and Pensions (required)
2. Local data matching against other local authority records held within Warwick District Council (optional, if required)

What is the legal basis for processing this data?

Local data sets are available to Electoral Registration Officers under their existing powers provided by Regulations 23, 35 and 35A of the Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations 2001 and the Representation of the People (Scotland) Regulations 2001.

How long will we hold the data for?

Once the purpose for obtaining the personal data sets from Warwick District Council has expired, Electoral Services will securely destroy the data sets received.

Conducting the annual canvass

Each Electoral Registration Officer must take all steps necessary to maintain the Register of Electors. Steps include sending to any address at least one communication to be used for the canvass and, where the Electoral Registration Officer holds relevant contact details for one or more persons aged 18 or over, this can be an electronic communication i.e. by email, SMS or telephone.

If you are contacted by e-mail, you will be directed to verify your personal details on www.householdresponse.com which is owned and managed by Civica Electoral Services on behalf of Warwick District Council Electoral Services. Warwick District Council Electoral Services remain the personal data controller for these purposes.

What is the legal basis for processing this data?

Representation of The People Act 1983 section 9 and the Representation of the People (Annual Canvass) (Amendment) Regulations 2019.

Part two – elections

Why collect data

The Returning Officer is a data controller and collects personal data supplied in preparation for elections or referenda and to support results. We will only collect the personal data required in order to do this.

What is the legal basis for processing this date?

We do this in the performance of a task carried out in the public interest and in the exercise of our official duty under the Representation of the People Act 1985 and the Representation of the People Regulations 2001.

This ensures that elections or referenda are conducted in a robust, fair and transparent way.

We use records kept by the Electoral Registration Officer about potential and actual voters. In addition we compile and use data relating to

• Election candidates
• Voters who propose, second or subscribe candidate nomination papers
• Election, Counting and Polling Agents and their guests/partners
• Political Parties and their officials
• Staff employed at elections
• Contact details for polling stations and count centres

These records may be written down, or kept on a computer.

General

How long will we hold the data for?

The Electoral Registration Officer and Returning Officer are obliged to process personal data for the preparation of the electoral register and the subsequent organisation of elections or referenda. Personal details will be kept and updated in accordance with our legal obligations and in line with statutory retention periods.

Your rights

You are entitled to request a copy of any information about you that we hold. Any such requests should 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 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 perform our statutory functions.

If you have any worries or questions about how your personal information is handled please contact our Data Protection Officer at DPO@warwickdc.gov.uk or by calling 01926 456114.

For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing issues, you can contact the Information Commissioner at:

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

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number. Alternatively, visit ico.org.uk or email casework@ico.org.uk.