We Care privacy notice
An accessible version of this privacy notice can be found here.
We Care is a North Yorkshire Police scheme designed to support anyone who may be vulnerable and need some help or advice at any time. People of any age can join, so far the youngest is 7 and the oldest is 99.
A person would find the scheme helpful if they could be described as long term vulnerable for any reason. Many people on the scheme are affected by some of the following: Learning disabilities, Physical disabilities, Neurological differences, Autism, Dementia, Alzheimer’s, Deafness, Blindness, Communication issues, social phobias, etc.
The We Care scheme is similar to the Herbert Protocol used since 2011 with vulnerable individuals/those suffering with dementia. The Herbert protocol collects a lot of information which is kept at the individual’s home, whereas the We Care scheme gathers similar info, but much less of it and is retained in the police systems to ensure that by the time we are contacted by the individual, we already know how to best support them, and how to effectively run our investigations and safeguard the communities of North Yorkshire.
The Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police is committed to protecting your personal information.
This Privacy Notice contains important information about what personal details we collect; what we do with that information; who we may share it with and why; and your choices and rights when it comes to the personal information you have given to us.
We may need to make changes to our Privacy Notice, so please check our website for updates from time to time. If there are important changes such as changes to where your personal data will be processed, we may need to contact you to let you know.
Who we are?
This Privacy Notice is provided to you by the Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police who is the data controller of this data.
Your personal data – what is it?
“Personal data” is any information about a living individual which allows them to be identified. Identification can be directly using the data itself, or by combining it with other information which helps to identify a living individual. The processing of personal data is governed by legislation relating to personal data which applies in the United Kingdom including the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) and the Data Protection Act 2018, and other legislation relating to personal data and rights, such as the Human Rights Act.
The data we may collect about you:
Personal Data that we may collect includes:
- Name,
- Date of birth,
- Town of birth,
- Current address,
- Contact details,
- Description of you (height, hair colour, etc),
- Next of kin’s contact details,
- Details of care provider.
Special category personal data may include personal data revealing:
- Racial or ethnic origin such as your nationality;
- Political opinions;
- Religious or philosophical beliefs;
- Trade Union membership;
- Physical or mental health such as medical information about your disability, medication or physical wellbeing;
- Sex life or orientation;
- Genetic or biometric data.
North Yorkshire Police will use the minimum amount of personal information necessary to carry out a particular activity.
Whose personal data do we handle? (If applicable)
We handle data of individuals who have specific communication or engagement needs, who volunteer such information to us to assist us in better engaging with us, and ensuring we run our policing activity in a more effective way.
What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?
The Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police may process personal data for the following reasons:
- Under GDPR Article 6 (1)(c), the processing is necessary to comply with a legal obligation, for instance, to safeguard children under section 11 of the Children’s Act 2004;
- Under GDPR Article 6 (1)(d), the processing is necessary in order to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another person;
- Under GDPR Article 6 (1) (e), the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest;
Where we process special categories of personal data, we will do so for one or more of the following reasons;
- Under GDPR Article 9 (2)(c), the processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject;
- Under GDPR Article 9 (2)(g), the processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.
Where this applies, NYP will meet the following Data Protection 2018, Schedule 1 conditions:
- Condition 6 (statutory or government purposes undertaken in the public interest);
- Condition 7 (Administration of justice);
- Condition 16 (supporting individuals with a particular disability or medical condition);
- Condition 18 (safeguarding of children and individuals at risk).
Please note, once this information is used as part of an investigation or incident, North Yorkshire Police have a statutory duty to uphold the law, prevent crime, bring offenders to justice and protect the public, which means we will process your personal information for carrying out tasks that are laid down in law and collectively described as the administration of justice. Where this is the case, the following Data Protection Act 2018, Schedule 8 conditions will be met:
- Condition 1 (processing is required for statutory purposes);
- Condition 2 (processing is required for administration of justice);
- Condition 3 (processing is necessary to protect an individual’s vital interests);
- Condition 4 (processing is necessary for safeguarding of children and individuals at risk).
The Data Controller will comply with data protection law. This says that the personal data we hold about you must be:
- Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way, as appropriate;
- Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes;
- Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes;
- Accurate and kept up to date;
- Kept only as long as is necessary for the purposes we have told you about;
- Kept and destroyed securely, including ensuring that appropriate technical and security measures are in place to protect your personal data and to protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure.
Sharing your personal data:
We may share your personal data internally with relevant departments for the purpose of fulfilling one or more of the above stated legal bases. We may also engage the services of other agencies to meet legal requirements, or fulfil another lawful basis.
Where we have arrangements to share your personal data, there is a contract, memorandum of understanding or information sharing agreement in place to ensure that the requirements of the Data Protection legislation on handling personal information are met. Where we are required to disclose information by law, for example for safeguarding purposes, we may do so without these arrangements.
We engage with third party processors who handle some, or all, of the above mentioned information on our instruction.
NYP will take steps to ensure any disclosures of personal data are necessary and proportionate, as required by law. Whenever we share your personal information, sharing options will be evaluated to ensure that your data is shared in the most secure manner.
How do we keep your personal information secure?
We are committed to ensuring that your personal data is safe and processed securely. In order to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised manner, altered or disclosed, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial measures. These include information security awareness training for our staff. We have also compiled procedures to safeguard and secure the information that we hold about you which our staff adhere to.
We limit the access to your personal information to those employees who have a business need to know, for instance through secure work areas and access controls on all of our systems. Employees, contractors and other third parties who handle personal data will only process your personal information in line with our direct instructions.
How long do we keep your personal information?
North Yorkshire Police keeps your personal information as long as is necessary for the particular purpose, or purposes, for which it is held.
Records that contain your personal information processed for “general data” purposes will be managed in accordance with the Force’s Retention Schedule.
Retention guidelines for personal information which is placed on the Police National Computer can be found within the National Police Chief’s Council’s Deletion of Records from National Police Systems document.
Other records that contain your personal information and which was processed for law enforcement purposes are retained in accordance with the College of Policing guidance on the Management of Police Information and North Yorkshire Police Record Retention Policy.
Your rights and personal data:
A key area of change in the new Data Protection Act relates to individuals’ rights. The law refreshes existing rights by clarifying and extending them and introduces new rights.
However your information rights will be dependent on the reason why the data was collected, how the data was collected and why it is being used.
Further information about your rights can be found on the “Your Data Rights” page.
Further processing:
If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Privacy Notice, we may provide you with a new notice explaining this new use and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions, prior to commencing the processing. We will seek your prior consent to the new processing if this is appropriate.
Contact Details:
Details as to how we can be contacted as well as how you can submit a complaint is available on our website: https://www.northyorkshire.police.uk/police-forces/north-yorkshire-police/areas/about-us/about-us/privacy-notice/
This version of our Privacy Notice was last updated on 16 November 2022.