Terms, conditions and privacy

Welcome to the Plymouth Online Directory (POD). We, Plymouth City Council, have provided these pages to the best of our ability; however all the content listed on this website is subject to the conditions set out below.

By using this website you agree to, and accept, following terms and conditions:

You agree that you will bear any and all risk of reliance on the accuracy, validity or legitimacy of such content. Under no circumstances will Plymouth City Council be liable in any way to you or any third party for any content, including, but not limited to, any errors, omissions or inaccuracy in any content or any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use or reliance on any of the content posted or otherwise transmitted via this website.
You will acknowledge that Plymouth City Council does not pre-screen content nor actively monitor the same, but agree that the Plymouth City Council shall have the right (but not the obligation) to access and remove any content on the website in its sole discretion and without notice or compensation.

You acknowledge and agree that Plymouth City Council may preserve or disclose any content if it reasonably believes disclosure is required by law or in the good faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to:

a) comply with its legal obligations;

b) enforce these terms and conditions;

c) respond to claims that any content violates the rights of third-parties; or

d) protect the rights or safety of Plymouth City Council, its users and the public

You acknowledge that you are solely responsible for your interactions with other contributors to this website.

You expressly understand and agree that the use of this online resource is at your sole risk. Plymouth City Council expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied. No advice whether oral or written, obtained via or as a result of this online resource shall create any warranty from Plymouth City Council whatsoever.

You expressly understand and agree that Plymouth City Council shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages including but not limited to damages for loss of profits, goodwill or other intangible losses whether based on contract or tort or otherwise resulting from any service procured via this online resource site or any statement or conduct of any third party on this online resource site.

The Directory

Please note that any content posted on this website is the exclusive responsibility of the individual who posted it. You acknowledge that Plymouth City Council is not responsible for, does not control, does not endorse nor does it verify the content posted to this website. Furthermore, Plymouth City Council makes no guarantee regarding the reliability, accuracy, legitimacy or quality of any such content.

Should you encounter content on this site that is inappropriate or inaccurate, please contact us. Plymouth City Council may, at its sole discretion choose to remove and discard any such content within the website.

Forums, Ratings and Reviews

Please note that Plymouth City Council does not actively monitor this site, however should you encounter content on this site that is inappropriate or inaccurate, please contact us. Plymouth City Council may, at its sole discretion choose to remove and discard any such content on the website, and/or terminate the password or ability to use the website of the account holder who posted the content.

You will acknowledge that the opinions expressed are those of the individual contributors and do not reflect the views of Plymouth City Council. Plymouth City Council is not responsible for, does not control, does not endorse nor does it verify the content posted to this website. Furthermore, Plymouth City Council makes no guarantee regarding the reliability, accuracy, legitimacy or quality of any such content.

Please note that although Plymouth City Council does not actively monitor this site, ratings and reviews will be approved before being published to the live site.

Ratings

Social media

Most online communities have their own rules and guidelines, which we will always endeavour to follow. We reserve the right to remove any contributions that break the rules or guidelines of the relevant community.

Defamation

Please take care not to make defamatory statements. In law, this means a statement that lowers the reputation of a person or organisation in the eyes of a reasonable person. By publishing such a statement, we can both get into serious trouble. We will therefore take down any statement that could be deemed defamatory.

Political neutral

We must be politically neutral in our communications. Therefore, please do not use any of our pages to promote party political messages or other content. We will remove any comments that, in its view, may compromise its obligation to maintain political neutrality.

Our approach to connections on social media

We may choose to 'follow', 'like' or otherwise establish connections with other organisations and individuals using social media. This is so that we can maintain contact with what other social media users are saying and, where appropriate, share their content. Sometimes we also need to establish a connection so that we can engage with users, e.g. via direct messages or posting.

Endorsement

We do not implicitly or explicitly endorse any individual or organisation merely by virtue of creating a social media connection, regardless of the terms used by social media providers such as 'follow' or 'like'. This also applies if we post an article that mentions a specific organisation(s). Our intention is to publish information on social media that might be useful for people living or working in Plymouth. You should make your own decisions regarding an event or organisation mentioned.

Contacting us via social media

Our responses to replies, comments and direct messages depend on the individual service. Even if we do not reply, we are listening and will act on or pass on your comments as appropriate. Please note that unless stated otherwise the views/comments given on any of our social media sites may not necessarily reflect the views of Plymouth City Council.

Privacy policy

Being transparent and providing accessible information to individuals about how we use personal information is a key element of the Data Protection Act and the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679). The most common way to provide this information is in a privacy notice.

Data Controller

Plymouth City Council is registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner's Office (registration number: Z7262171).

Contact details for the council's data controller are:

Data Protection Officer, Plymouth City Council, Ballard House, West Hoe Road, Plymouth Pl1 3BJ.

Email: dataprotectionofficer@plymouth.gov.uk

Purpose of Processing Personal information

As a local authority, the council delivers services to you. In order to do this in an effective way, we will need to collect and use personal information about you.

If you use a specific council service, we will usually let you know how that service will use your personal information via a separate privacy notice.

The Data Protection Act 2018 and the EU General Data Protection Regulation ensure that we comply with a series of data protection principles. These principles are there to protect you and they make sure that we:

Process all personal information lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner.
Collect personal information for a specified, explicit and legitimate purpose.
Ensure that the personal information processed is adequate, relevant and limited to the purposes for which it was collected.
Ensure the personal information is accurate and up to date.
Keep your personal information for no longer than is necessary for the purpose(s) for which it was collected.
Keep your personal information securely using appropriate technical or organisational measures.

Consent

During your contact with the council you will be informed of how you, or your children's, information will be used and shared with other services or organisations.

We will usually seek your consent prior to processing or sharing your information, If you object you must inform the council, however, if there is a legal reason, as outlined under the Data Protection Act, we may not require your consent, e.g.

Stated purposes as discussed when information is supplied
To protect a child, a vulnerable adult, or member of the public
Where the disclosure is necessary for the purposes of the prevention and/or detection of crime.
Tax or duty assessment
Required by court or law

Where we need to disclose sensitive or confidential information such as medical details to other partners, we will do so only with your prior explicit consent or where we are legally required to. We may disclose information when necessary to prevent risk of harm to an individual.

Categories of personal data

We process:

Personal information relating to identified natural persons used to deliver services such as:
Adult and children's social care, human resources, special educational needs, planning applications, access to information requests, legal claims, school appeals, library cards, blue badges, customer services, highways claims and complaints, pensions, children's services, parking services, care homes, early years, youth offending, trading standards and more.
Sensitive information revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade-union membership, and data concerning health or sex life.
Health and wellbeing information. All local authorities have a duty to improve the health of the population they serve. To help with this, we use information from a range of source data, including data collected at the registration of a birth or death to understand more about the health and care needs in the area.
Research and statistical data to provide intelligence about Plymouth including demographic data, population projections, the economic situation, health and wellbeing information. This personal information is often pseudonymised when an identifier such as name is replaced with a unique number.

Information Sharing

To ensure that the council provides you with an efficient and effective service we will sometimes need to share your information between teams within the council as well as with our partner organisations that support the delivery of the service you may receive, for example:

NHS
Other Councils
Police
Fire Service
HMRC
DWP
Voluntary organisations
Electoral Services

We will also need to supply your information to organisations we have contracted to provide a service to you.

We will only ever share your information if we are satisfied that our partners or suppliers have sufficient measures in place to protect your information in the same way that we do.

We will never share your information for marketing purposes.

Before sharing information the council will ensure that:

Privacy Notices are completed if appropriate.
Technical security such as encryption and access controls are in place to keep information secure.
Information Sharing Agreements are completed showing the rules to be adopted by the various organisations involved in the sharing exercise.
Data Protection Impact Assessments are completed to assess any risks or potential negative effects.
Common retention periods and deletion arrangements are set for the information.
Subject access rights are catered for.

Details of transfers to third country and safeguards

Your personal and sensitive data will only be stored and processed on servers based within the UK.

Retention Periods

We will only keep your information for as long as it is required to be retained. The retention period is either dictated by law or by our discretion. Once your information is no longer needed it will be securely and confidentially destroyed.

Plymouth City Council has a record retention and disposal schedule. This is a document that sets out the legislation, guidance and policy about record retention of all data we hold.

All retention periods quoted are minimums only and our records are reviewed at the end of any quoted time.

Records are considered both individually and in relation to business centres as a whole. The purpose, value, and corporate significance is also considered.

Your Rights

You have certain rights under the Data Protection Act and the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), these are:

The right to be informed via Privacy Notices such as this.
The right of access to any personal information the council holds about yourself.

To request a copy of this information you must make a subject access request in writing, either via a letter to Information Access Officer, Customer Relations Team, Plymouth City Council, Ballard House, West Hoe Road, Plymouth, PL1 3BJ, via the Council website or via email to: CustomerRelationsTeam@plymouth.gov.uk

To ensure that we can deal with your request as efficiently as possible you will need to include your current name and address, proof of identity (a copy of your driving licence, passport or two different utility bills that display your name and address), as much detail as possible regarding your request so that we can identify any information we may hold about you, this may include your previous name and address, date of birth and what council service you were involved with.

Plymouth City Council does not charge for making a subject access request. You are entitled to receive a copy of your personal data within 30 calendar days of our receipt of your subject access request.

The right of rectification, we must correct inaccurate or incomplete data within one month.
The right to erasure. You have the right to have your personal data erased and to prevent processing unless we have a legal obligation to process your personal information.
The right to restrict processing. You have the right to suppress processing. We can retain just enough information about you to ensure that the restriction is respected in future.
The right to data portability. We can provide you with your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable form when asked.
The right to object. You can object to your personal data being used for profiling, direct marketing or research purposes.
You have rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling, to reduce the risk that a potentially damaging decision is taken without human intervention.

Access to the Council's Decision Making process

Information on the constitution of the council can be found here: Decision Making Process

Access to Council Official Information

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 you have a right to request any recorded official information held by the council. The information you require may already be publicly available. The council has a duty to make official recorded information available The council has a duty to make information available via a publication scheme. Before you submit a request please check the publication scheme.

If you need to make a request, it must be done in writing. You can:

Submit a request online
Email CustomerRelationsTeam@plymouth.gov.uk
Write to: Information Access Officer, Customer Relations Team, Plymouth City Council, Ballard House, West Hoe Road, Plymouth, PL1 3BJ.

You do not need to say why you want the information. Your request must include your name, and an address for correspondence (if you apply by email, your email address is a suitable address for correspondence). Please ensure you identify the information you want as clearly as possible.

With certain limited exceptions, you are entitled to a response within 20 working days.

It costs nothing to make a freedom of information request. However, the county council can refuse to deal with your request if doing so would cost more than £450 (which equates to 18 hours' work). In extreme circumstances, the county council may also charge for the cost of photocopying and postage.

You may not get the information you asked for:

If the council does not hold the information you have requested
If the information is exempt from disclosure
if finding the information you have requested would take longer than 18 hours

If we are unable to supply any of the information you have requested, we will tell you the reasons why. More information available in the exemptions guide.

For more details please refer to the Information Commissioner's Office website.

Collecting Information Automatically

Please see our cookies page for further information about the information we collect automatically when using our website.

Information Security incident

Should you wish to report an information security incident you can contact our data protection officer

Data Protection Officer, Plymouth City Council, Ballard House, West Hoe Road, Plymouth Pl1 3BJ.

Email: dataprotectionofficer@plymouth.gov.uk

Complaints, Comments and Compliments

If you wish to make a compliment, comment or complaint about how the council are processing your data, then please visit send a compliment or comment or make a complaint to the council.

If you are still dissatisfied with how the council have handled your complaint, you may contact the Information Commissioner's Office.

The Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Phone: 08456 30 60 60 Website: ico.org.uk

Changes

If this privacy notice changes in any way, we will place an updated version on this page. By regularly reviewing this page you will ensure that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances, if any, we share it with others.

Service or Project Specific Privacy Notices

Services using a large amount of personal or sensitive information will have their own dedicated privacy notice to tell people what information is being shared. These notices will map out how personal information flows through the service or project and how it is processed.

The following Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) guidance is used when creating a service or project specific privacy notice:

Privacy Notice Checklist

Questions and further information

If you have any questions or communications about this statement you can contact us at DataProtectionOfficer@plymouth.gov.uk.

Further information about data protection and privacy matters can be found on the Information Commissioner's website.

Finally

We reserve the right to remove and discard or alter any information including links at our sole discretion and without warning.