Public Health Privacy Notice

The purpose of processing

We analyse personal data for purposes such as needs assessments, health equity audits, commissioning and delivery of services to promote health and prevent ill-health, public health surveillance, identifying inequalities in the way people access services and their outcomes, Strategic Evidence Base (SEB), providing public health advice to commissioners in the NHS and local government, and health protection and other partnership activities.

Data subjects

Health and social care professionals (including doctors and nurses in GP surgeries and hospitals)

Schools and colleges

Police

Fire service

Other council colleagues across B&NES to promote the health of local people

Personal data

Under the provisions of the Health and Social Care Act of 2012; Bath & North East Somerset Council receives health data from a range of sources, including NHS England. The Business Intelligence Team within B&NES Council holds this data. It also processes the data on behalf of the Public Health Team within B&NES Council.

B&NES Council is the Joint Data Controller for NCMP data, along with HCRG, which means that each organisation are jointly responsible for the data, and will both make decisions about how we process it.

With the support of the Office of National Statistics (ONS) support, NHS is now the Data Controller for the births and deaths registration data, which means it will be treated similarly to other health data.

Births registration data (individual data of births to residents of B&NES with NHS number and date of birth of baby and usual address of mother, but does not include the names of mothers and babies)

National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) data (name, date of birth, address of residence, NHS number, weight and height of participating pupils in B&NES’s state funded schools who are in Reception and Year 6)

deaths registration data (individual data of deaths among BANES residents, deaths among registered patients in NHS Bath and North East Somerset CCG; NHS number, address, postcode, date of birth/death of deceased, but not names of deceased persons)

How is it used?

Needs assessments

Health equity audits

Commissioning and delivery of services to promote health and prevent ill-health

Public health surveillance

Identifying inequalities in the way people access services and their outcomes

Strategic Evidence Base (SEB)

Providing public health advice to commissioners in the NHS and local government

Health protection and other partnership activities

Profiling and automated decision making

Not applicable.

Legal basis for using your data

GDPR condition relied upon for processing personal data:

Article 6.1 e - Exercise of official authority

The statutory authority for processing NCMP Privacy Notice for B&NES Public Health’s use of personal data data is provided by The Local Authorities (Public Health Functions and Entry to Premises by Local Healthwatch Representatives) Regulations 2013 and The Local Authority (Public Health, Health and Wellbeing Boards and Health Scrutiny) Regulations 2013. The legal basis for the dissemination of births and deaths registration data by NHS Digital is given by Dissemination: Health and Social Care Act 2012 - s261(5)(d).

GDPR condition relied upon for processing special category data

Article 9.2 h - Provision of health or social care

Sharing of personal data with external recipients

For NCMP data our commissioned provider, HCRG Care Group collect the NCMP data and store a record of the height and weight measurements on the child's health record. HCRG Care Group may share it with the provider of the local Child Health Information System (CHIS), NHS South Central and West (SCW CHIS). The child’s GP will either access these measurements direct from their health record, or HCRG Care Group may share this with them.

Our Business Intelligence team share the data with NHS England where it is also stored securely and used for national analysis. NHS England is responsible for collecting health and care information to check how the NHS and social care services are doing, and to use this to improve the care provided to people across England.

NHS England shares de-personalised NCMP data with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) so they can undertake their work to protect and improve the nation’s health. NHS England may also share de-personalised NCMP data with other organisations, such as universities with the approval of an independent group of experts. The information about the organisations NHS England has shared information from NCMP with can be found at https://digital.nhs.uk/services/national-child-measurement-programme. For information about how the OHID use your personal data, please see their Privacy Notice at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-child-measurement-programme-privacy-notice

No information is ever published by NHS England or OHID in a way that could lead to individual children being identified.

Other than sharing among authorised staff from our Public Health and Business Intelligence teams, births and deaths registration data supplied by NHS England will not be shared with any third parties.

There are occasions where service providers will have a legal duty to share information, for example, for safeguarding or criminal issues.

How long is the personal data retained by the Council?

Personal data will only be retained for as long as it is needed for the purpose specified above, or as required by applicable law or regulatory requirements.

You have the right of access to your personal data, meaning you can request to see what data we hold about you. You can also object to the processing of your data, and you have the right to ask us to correct anything that is incorrect. In certain circumstances you will have the right to have your data erased. Please contact our Data Protection Officer (details below) should you wish to invoke any of your statutory rights.

For further information about the service, please contact the Public Health Team by e-mailing public_health@bathnes.gov.uk, or in writing to: Public Health Department, Bath & North East Somerset Council, Keynsham Civic Centre, Market Walk, Keynsham, BS31 1FS

Questions or concerns?

Please email data_protection@bathnes.gov.uk 

Appeals to the Information Commissioner’s Office

If you are unhappy about the way we have treated your personal data, or feel we have not properly respected your data subject rights, you have the right to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and tell them about this.

You can also contact the ICO by phone on 0303 1231113.