Privacy Statement
The GDPR regulation is a set of rules introduced under European Union law to protect the privacy and to regulate the use of personal data by businesses operating on the web/internet. These days that’s a lot of people.
One of the requirements of GDPR is to provide a privacy statement informing people of how their data is handled.
Strictly speaking MEPs have been one of several categories exempt from the requirements of GDPR, but this website has always followed the new regulation anyway. For this website it is quite easy.
Cookies
This website doesn’t use cookies to harvest personal data, spy on you or any of that stuff. To be honest we (that is John and his team) wouldn't know what to do with it anyway, and we really don't find you that interesting as an individual - though we might change if we ever met you because people are fascinating - but not as data. So the cookies this site uses are deeply dull and do the usual stuff to 'enhance your experience'. They tend to be put there by the CMS (WordPress) and do things like remember the timezone you are in and suchlike. Anyway, you are meant to consent to this - so there is one of those mildly irritating messages when you first access the site (or after you have cleaned out your browser cache - which you should do every so often really - that's not advice, at your own risk and all).
Personal Data
This website does not collect personal data for the purposes of contacting or targeting individuals. If we change this, which is very unlikely, we will let you know here.
Membership Data
The MEP office sends emails to members of the Labour Party. Under the GDPR rules membership organisations are entitled to contact their members by email. Permission to contact is part of becoming a member. Nonetheless, members may unsubscribe from mailings from a click through link should they so wish. (Similar rules apply to businesses contacting their customers). This no longer takes place and the data is no longer held.
Data Collected for Casework or Policy Queries
MEPs are contacted by individual constituents for all sorts of reasons but by far the most common are a) policy queries; and b) individual casework. Following the end of mandate all casework data was archived and will be retained for a period after which it will be destroyed.
Policy Queries
People using this website, or sending direct emails to express concerns on policy matters supply their email address so that we can reply, their name and their land address so that we can establish that they are constituents of the South East England Region; they may volunteer their phone numbers. This data is retained by the MEP office in an offline database that enables the office to reply once the policy issue has concluded or to provide updates as, for example, legislation passes through the Parliament or to provide updates on the subject area many of which are of recurrent concern. Data supplied in this way was retained until the MEP’s time in office is concluded at which time it was destroyed. It is our policy never to disclose data to third parties, never to sell data and never to transfer the data outside the European Union (or in the case of the UK, outside the UK should the UK leave the EU).
Individual Casework.
During the MEP mandate the following policy was applied.
People who contact this office by whatever means to request the assistance of their MEP on matters of personal or family concern initially supply their email address so that we can reply, their name and their land address so that we can establish that they are constituents of the South East England Region; they may volunteer their phone number. Individuals may, however, supply additional personal data that is directly relevant to the circumstances of their case or concern. It may be necessary for data supplied in connection with individual cases may be shared with or transferred to third parties in order to resolve the issue on behalf of the constituent. In such cases the person in question, the ‘owner’ of the data or their legal guardian, is contacted to ensure they understand and consent to this requirement. Data supplied in this way may be used to contact individuals to provide updates on matters that affect their case or concern - such as changes in the law. Other than as described above data is not disclosed to third parties, is not sold and is not transferred outside the European Union. Data of this type is retained until the MEP’s time in office is concluded at which time it is destroyed or, if the case is still ongoing, is transferred with the consent of the ‘data owner’ to another appropriate representative to continue the case on the constituent’s behalf.
Contacting us about data concerns.
If you wish to contact us about any data concern you may do so via the contact page on this website.
