Electoral Services privacy notice

This privacy notice is to be read in conjunction with the full Elmbridge Borough Council Privacy Notice. This notice sets out how Electoral Services for Elmbridge Borough Council (the council) will use and process your information.

Who is responsible for the information?

The Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) and the Returning Officer (RO) are data controllers who collect and use information about residents, candidates, election agents and election and electoral registration staff to enable us to carry out specific functions for which we are statutorily responsible. We will only collect the personal data we need from you in order to do this.

What type of information is collected about you?

We keep records about potential and actual electors, voters, citizens, candidates and their agents, staff employed at an election and canvass.

These records may include:

your name, previous name, address, date of birth and nationality
unique identifiers – such as your National Insurance Number and signature
documentary evidence such as copies of your passport, marriage certificate or driving licence
scanned application forms and dates of any letters of correspondence
notes about any relevant circumstances that you have told us
your previous or redirected address
the other occupants in your home
if you are over 76 or under 18
whether you have chosen to opt out of the open register
contact details including telephone numbers and email addresses

In addition, if you work for the RO on election duties or the ERO for registration duties these may also include:

tax status
bank details
details of previous employment
other information, for example, whether you drive a car, next of kin or emergency contact details

If you are a candidate at an election, an appointed agent at an election or a campaigner, we may also hold these details:

political party affiliation
campaign group affiliation

Why do we collect this information?

This information will be used for the functions of Electoral Services. These functions are undertaken on behalf of the ERO and RO in the public interest for the purposes of:

registering your right to vote
producing and maintaining a complete and accurate register of electors
processing any absent (postal or proxy) voting applications
processing 'Voter Authority Certificate' (VAC) applications
delivering elections and referendums

Electoral Register

The ERO is required by law to publish two versions of the register:

The electoral register lists the names and addresses of everyone who is registered to vote. It is used for electoral purposes such as making sure only eligible people vote. It is also used for other limited purposes specified in law such as detecting crime (fraud), calling people for jury service and checking credit.
The open register is an extract of the electoral register but is not used for elections. It can be bought by any third party who may use it for any purpose.

The law requires that we make the open register available for sale. Your name and address will be included in the open register unless you ask for them to be removed (opt out), which will not affect your right to vote. You can opt out of this version at any time by contacting the ERO at electoral@elmbridge.gov.uk.

The electoral register is published once a year (usually on 1 December each year) and is updated on the first working day of each month between January and November.

Canvass

The ERO is required to conduct an annual canvass of all households in the area to check that existing records are up to date and to identify people missing from the register. This is an integral part of the year-round registration process.

As part of this process, the ERO shares basic personal data (including name, date of birth and address information) with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to verify whether electors are likely to still reside at a property, as required under the Canvass Reform Act 2020. The ERO also has the power to verify register data against other council datasets, also known as 'data matching'.

Polling station registers, poll cards and postal vote packs and nominations

The RO will specifically use personal information on the register to produce electoral registers for polling stations, poll cards and postal voting packs, and checking the validity of political candidates’ nominations.

We are required by law to provide copies of the electoral register to certain organisations and individuals. Details of who can be provided with this information and can be found on the Electoral Commission and includes political parties, elected representatives, candidates and agents, credit reference agencies, the Electoral Commission, the Boundary Commission for England, the Local Government Boundary Commission for England, the British Library and the Office of National Statistics.
To verify your identity and your eligibility for the register, the information you provide on any application form to register to vote will be processed by the Individual Electoral Registration Digital Service (IER-DS) managed by the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
To allow the mandatory data matching step as part of the annual canvass, the entries we hold on you on the register will be sent via the IER-DS and matched against data held by the Department for Work and Pensions. We will also be data matching the entries against other data sets held by the council, such as Council Tax.
Anyone can inspect hard copies of the electoral register (containing information on all registered electors) at Elmbridge Borough Council Civic Centre under strict control. Inspection is under supervision. Handwritten notes may be made, but no copies or photographs of the register are allowed. Information taken must not be used for direct marketing purposes unless it has also been published in the open version of the register. Anyone who fails to observe these conditions may be charged an unlimited fine.
The open register can be sold to any person, company or organisation for a wide range of purposes such as direct marketing.
We share your information with our software provider and contracted printers to compile and manage the register, to provide online response services, to print poll cards, postal vote packs and other electoral registration and election materials.
Details of whether you have voted (but not how you have voted) to those entitled in law to receive it after an election.
Staffing data may be shared with other Returning Officers and Electoral Registration Officers as appropriate. All staff details will also be shared with payroll and HMRC in order to make payments.
Details of candidates, election agents, subscribers to nomination papers and other political campaigners may be published where the law requires us to do so.
We are required by law to provide certain information to appropriate authorities – for example:
- where a formal court order has been issued
- for the prevention and detection of a crime
- to the Jury Central Summoning Bureau in respect of those persons who are aged 76 or over and are no longer eligible for jury service.

What is the legal basis for the collection, processing and retention of your personal information?

The collection and retention of data from individuals; and, inspection and making copies of other council records is governed by legislation (including):

Local Government Act 1972
Representation of the People Act 1983
Representation of the People Regulations 2001
The Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013
Canvass Reform Act 2020
Elections Act 2022
Voter Identification Regulations 2022

The law makes it compulsory to provide information to an Electoral Registration Officer when requested. This is for the compilation and maintenance of a complete and accurate electoral register. Records are kept for:

potential electors who need to register to vote
non-eligible citizens so we can stop inviting them to register
electors who have registered to vote

Returning Officers have statutory duties to collect and retain information from:

candidates and their agents
staff employed at an election
voters

This information may be kept in either digital format (i.e. data within a software system or scanned) or hard copy printed format or both.

How long do we hold your information?

The ERO and RO 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.

What rights do you have?

You are entitled to request (in writing) a copy of any information about you that we hold (known as ‘right of subject access’). You are entitled to receive this record, free of charge and within a month.

In certain circumstances, access to your records may be limited, for example, if the records you have asked for contain information relating to another person.

You have the right to request erasure of your personal information (‘right to be forgotten’). You have the right to request that we stop, or restrict the processing of your personal information, 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.

You have other rights, for example, if there is an error in your records you have the right to make sure it is rectified or erased.

You have the right to opt out of the open register, at any time, and we must remove you from this version and tell statutory recipients. You have the right to be told if we have made a mistake whilst processing your information and we will self-report breaches to the Information Commissioner, when appropriate.

Further information

If you have any questions or concerns about how your information is used, please contact the Electoral Services office at electoral@elmbridge.gov.uk.

If you would like to make a complaint regarding how the ERO/RO has used your personal information, please email dataprotection@elmbridge.gov.uk.

If you are still dissatisfied, you have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

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