The London Borough of Hounslow is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. Through this Privacy Notice we have sought to be as transparent as possible and fully explain how your personal data is held and processed.
This privacy notice applies to services provided by Electoral Services on behalf of the Electoral Registration Officer (“ERO”) and the Returning Officer (“RO”) for London Borough of Hounslow and tells you what to expect us to do with your personal information.
If you have any questions about this privacy notice or any concerns about how we process your data, please contact 020 8583 2828 or elections@hounslow.gov.uk. The privacy notice will continue to be monitored and updated. You are advised to check this page from time to time.
Why we need your information (purposes of processing)
The Electoral Registration Officer and Returning 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 also need your information for the purpose of processing Voter Authority Certificates and any absent votes (postal or proxy). We will only collect the personal data we need from you in order to do this.
The personal data we collect will be used for the following purposes:
- To enable the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) to carry out their statutory duties to produce and maintain an accurate electoral register of the borough
- To enable the Returning Officer to carry out their legal duties to conduct elections and polls in the borough
What type of information we have
The collection of your personal data is a task carried out in the public interest in order to ensure you are registered and able to vote in any election, or referendum for which you are eligible, and to comply with the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013, Representation of the People Regulations 2001 and the Elections Act 2022. The law makes it compulsory to provide information to an electoral registration officer for inclusion in the full register. To meet our statutory obligations, we keep records about potential and actual electors, voters, citizens, candidates and their agents, as well as staff employed at the annual canvass and elections. These may be written down, or kept on a computer.
The information we currently collect and process includes:
- Your name, address, nationality and date of birth
- Unique identifiers (such as National Insurance Numbers).
- Signatures for absent vote checking
- Photographs for Voter Authority Certificates and Anonymous Elector Documents
- Scanned application forms, documentary evidence, dates of 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 76 (Jury service) or 16/17 (to be added as an attainer elector)
- Whether you have chosen to opt out of the open version of the register.
- Candidate nomination papers
- Agent appointment forms
The data you provide will be processed by the Individual Electoral Registration Digital Service managed by the Cabinet Office in order to verify your identity. 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. You can find more information about this on the GOV.UK website.
How do we get your information?
Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons
- Application to register to vote
- Application for an absent vote (voting by post, voting by proxy, postal proxy voting) at elections
- Application for a Voter Authority Certificate or Anonymous Elector Document
- Response to an annual household canvass communication and Household Notification Letter
- Application for your name to be changed in the electoral register
- Documentary evidence to prove your identity for your voter registration application or change of name application
- Form completed by another registered elector to attest your application to be registered to vote
- Application to be registered as a HM Armed Forces voter, Crown Servant voter or Anonymous Elector
- Renewal of Overseas Elector, HM Armed Forces Voter, Crown Servant voter, ‘Local Connection’ voter or Anonymous Elector declarations
- To be validly nominated as a candidate at an election
- To be appointed as an election agent, postal voting agent, polling agent, sub-agent or counting agent for a validly nominated candidate at an election
- Applying to work on election duties for the RO, or as an electoral registration canvasser for the ERO
- To prove your eligibility to work in the UK to the ERO and/or RO
We also receive personal information indirectly, in the following scenarios:
- From other Hounslow Council departments, so that the ERO can carry out their statutory duties to maintain an accurate electoral register; including the data matching of names in the electoral register against other council records before the start of the annual household canvass
If it is not disproportionate or prejudicial, we’ll contact you to let you know we are processing your personal information.
Our Lawful basis for processing your information
The Electoral Registration Officer and Returning Officer is required to keep a record of your personal data in order to comply with the Representation of the Peoples Act 1983, Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013, Representation of the People Regulations 2001 and Electoral Registration (Disclosure of Electoral Registers) Regulations 2013.
The lawful basis we rely on for processing this information is:
- Legal Obligation
- Public Task
Who your information may be shared with (internally and externally)
The information you provide is held in electoral registers which are managed by electoral registration officers who, using information received, keep two registers – the full electoral register and the open (edited) register.
The full register is published once a year and is updated every month. In accordance with the specific legislative provisions which permit its supply and restrict its use. It may only be supplied to the following people and organisations:
- The British Library
- The National Library of Wales
- The National Library of Scotland
- The Returning Officer for London Borough of Hounslow
- UK Statistics Authority (Office for National Statistics)
- The Electoral Commission
- The Boundary Commission for England
- Jury Summoning Bureau
- The Constituency Returning Officer for the South West Constituency at a Greater London Authority election
- The (Acting) Returning Officer for the parliamentary constituencies of:
- Brentford & Isleworth
- Feltham & Heston
- Hammersmith and Chiswick
The following organisations and individuals are entitled by law to receive a full copy of the electoral register on request from the Electoral Registration Officer:
- Elected representatives whose electoral area cover all or part of London Borough of Hounslow (local Members of Parliament, Hounslow councillors, the Mayor of London, London members of the London Assembly, constituency members of the London Assembly)
- Holders of relevant elective offices
- Candidates for Parliamentary constituencies in London Borough of Hounslow and London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham at UK Parliamentary elections (Feltham & Heston, Brentford & Isleworth, and Hammersmith & Chiswick)
- Candidates for London Borough of Hounslow elections
- Candidates for Greater London Authority elections
- Election agents for political parties registered with The Electoral Commission that submit a list of candidates at an election of the London Members of the London Assembly
- Local constituency political parties
- Political parties, recognised third parties and permitted participants registered with The Electoral Commission
- Other service areas at London Borough of Hounslow
- Other organisations entitled by law to request a copy of the electoral register (such as: Security Service, the Government Communications Headquarters, the Secret Intelligence Service, any police force in Great Britain, Police Service of Northern Ireland, the National Crime Agency, the Environment Agency, the Financial Conduct Authority, the Prudential Regulation Authority)
- Public libraries and local authority archives services in London Borough of Hounslow
- Credit reference agencies registered with the Financial Conduct Authority
We also have to disclose (share) your information with our Software providers and contracted printers, this is subject to appropriate safeguards.
It is a criminal offence for anyone who has a copy of the full register to supply, disclose or otherwise make use of information in this register for any purpose other than that set out in relevant legislation. (Representation of the People (England & Wales) Regulations (RPR), 2001)
Anyone can inspect the full electoral register.
- Inspection of the register will be under supervision
- Those inspecting it may take extracts from the register, but only by hand written 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 incur a penalty of up to £5,000.
The open register contains the same information as the full register, but is not used for elections or referendums. It is updated and published every month and may 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 included in 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. Electors that do not want their details included in the open register should contact the ERO at elections@hounslow.gov.uk or 020 8583 2828 to request for their details to be excluded from the open register.
How long we will hold your data for
The Electoral Registration Officer and Returning Officer are obliged to process your personal data in relation to preparing for and conducting elections and referenda. Your details will be kept and updated in accordance with our legal obligations and in line with statutory retention periods. A full version of the retention schedule is available upon request.
Transfers to third countries
All the information you provide us is held within the UK & European Economic Area
Your data protection rights
You are entitled to request a copy of any information that we hold about you. 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 a right to request completion of incomplete data.
You have the right to request the erasure 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.
The rights available to you depend on our reason for processing your information. For further information about your data protection rights and how to make a request, please see ‘Your rights’
Your right to make a complaint
The Council tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate.
If you want to make a complaint you can contact us on:
Complaints Team
London Borough of Hounslow
Hounslow House,
7 Bath Road,
TW3 3EB
Data Protection Officer
The Council’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted on:
InformationGovernance@hounslow.gov.uk
Information Governance Team
London Borough of Hounslow
Hounslow House,
7 Bath Road,
TW3 3EB
You can also make a complaint or find out more information on the Commissioner's Office website.
Information Commissioner’s Office
The Information Commissioner is the UK's independent body set up to uphold information rights.
If you would like to know more about your rights under the Data Protection law, and what you should expect, visit the Information Commissioner’s website
If you have any concerns regarding any privacy practices or about exercising your Data Protection rights, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545 745
Email: casework@ico.org.uk
A full list of what information we control and process and for what purposes is set out in our notification with the Information Commissioner's Register of Data Controllers. Our registration number is Z5761176. You can view our registration on the Information Commissioner's website.
Data Matching and Auditing
We are required by law to protect the public funds we administer. We may use the information you provide to us for the prevention and detection of crime. We may also share this information with other bodies that are responsible for auditing or administering public funds including the Audit Commission, the Department for Work and Pensions, other local authorities, HM Revenue and Customers and the Police.
The council uses data matching as a way of processing large volumes of information. While this can be a useful way of detecting fraud, it also enables us to identify information that is inaccurate or out of date, helping us comply with Data Protection law, while improving service provision.
In addition to undertaking our own data matching to identify errors and potential frauds, we are required to take part in national data matching exercises undertaken by the Audit Commission. The use of data by the Audit Commission in a data matching exercise is carried out under its powers in Part 2A of the Audit Commission Act 1998. It does not require the consent of the individuals concerned.
Electoral Registration Officer and Returning Officer ICO Registration
- The Electoral Registration Officer and Returning Officer is registered with the Information Commissioners Office. Their registration is Z107983X. You can view the registration on the Information Commissioner's website.
Last updated on 28 June 2024
