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Blue Badge privacy notice

1 Council contact details

1.1 North Northants Council
Registered Office:
Sheerness House
41 Meadow Road
Kettering
NN16 8TL

0300 126 3000

1.2 The Customer Service team can be contacted at [email protected].

2 Information that we hold

2.1 We currently collect and process the following personal information for the issue of your Blue Badge:

  • Contact details
  • First name
  • Surname
  • Date of Birth
  • Address
  • Postcode
  • Email Address
  • Contact telephone number (Land line / Mobile)
  • Photo ID (which will appear on your Blue Badge)
  • Location
  • Unique Identifier / reference number
  • Name of carer (where relevant)
  • Details of previous badges
  • Other council services received relating to mobility
  • Medical conditions affecting mobility and hidden disabilities that are eligible that you provide in support of your claim
  • If applicable, copies of documents showing your eligibility to a benefit which automatically qualifies you for a Blue Badge
  • Financial information to process your application, if you pay by credit / debit card
  • If you do not choose to use the automatic identity verification process, or this is unable to verify your identity, we will collect copies of documents showing your proof of identity (for example, passport, birth certificate) and copies of documents showing your address (for example, council tax bill, benefit letter, driving licence, pay slips)

2.2 There is further information regarding the Blue Badge Scheme

3 How the information is obtained

3.1 Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for the issue of a Blue Badge through one of the following means:

  • Webform
  • Email
  • Telephone

We also receive personal information indirectly, from the following sources in the following scenarios:

  • Your family or a third party (if they apply on your behalf)
  • Anyone supporting your application or providing supporting evidence to support your application, such as a medical specialist.
  • Anyone we have approached for information in respect of enforcement action.

3.2 The Blue Badge service is designed to enable disabled people who have a condition which impacts their mobility to access goods and services, by allowing them to park close to their destination.

There are several reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information. Generally, we collect and use personal information where:

  • You have requested a service from us.
  • You, or your legal representative, have given us your consent.
  • It is required for the defence of legal cases.

We have a lawful basis to process this information because it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest. This includes tasks under the:

  • Blue Badge (Disabled Persons’ Parking) Scheme introduced under Section 21 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970. Under this act we have a statutory obligation to maintain a register showing the holders of badges issued by the authority.
  • We are responsible for determining and implementing administrative, assessment and enforcement procedures in accordance with the governing legislation, Disabled Persons (Badges Act 2013 for Motor Vehicles) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2019.

We also process personal information where it is necessary for the performance of a contract (e.g. lease, licence, service and maintenance contract).

We have legal grounds to process special category data and criminal convictions data where it is in the exercise of a statutory function, and it is in the necessary for reasons in the substantial public interest. The statutory functions are as set out above.

4 What we do with the information

4.1 We use the information that you have given us in order to:

  • Process applications and replacement requests for a Blue Badge
  • Taking enforcement measures regarding the use of the Blue Badge if necessary
  • Prevention and / or detection of crime, including fraud
  • We also use this information to assess the quality of our services and evaluate and improve our policies and procedures
  • We may also use information in other ways compatible with the above

4.2 We may also share your personal information with other organisations and public bodies to process and safeguard the Blue Badge scheme for yourself and other applicants, in particular:

  • Department for Transport
  • North Northamptonshire Council’s Occupational Therapy service (providers of eligibility assessments)
  • National Anti-Fraud Network
  • Department for Work and Pensions
  • Other local authorities for traffic enforcement and administration
  • Police
  • Valtech (National Register of Blue Badges)
  • Allied Publicity Services (APS) for printing of badges
  • Courts
  • Heycentric for processing payments
  • Commissioned providers of local authority services (payment services)
  • Partner agencies for the processing of applications. If you opt to have your identity automatically verified this will include sharing details with a third party, NorthRow, who carry out a checking service against credit reference agencies and electoral register on behalf of the Council
  • North Northamptonshire Council’s Parking Services and Police for parking enforcement and the prevention and detection of crime
  • Other local authorities who administer or enforce the Blue Badge service if you move to their area or use the Blue Badge in their area
  • Your name, address, date of birth, contact information and Blue Badge details will be shared with the Cabinet Office for data matching under the National Fraud Initiative
  • The DVLA if there are concerns over a person’s fitness to drive

We share this information without your specific consent as it is reasonable and necessary to do so to fulfil our public tasks or it is otherwise in the substantial public interest to do so. The law imposes safeguards to protect your privacy in these circumstances.

We may also share your information, subject to contractual and other legal safeguards, with organisations contracted by us to provide a service to the council or directly to you, for example, the company contracted to print the blue badges. These service providers are known as data processors and have a legal obligation under UK GDPR and to us to look after your personal information and only use it for providing that service.

We may also share your information across different departments of North Northamptonshire Council, where it is necessary for our public tasks or functions to do so.

4.3 We do not use automated decision making for equalities processing. Automated decision-making is where decisions are made about you without any human influence on the outcome. These may affect your legal rights or have an impact on your circumstances, behaviour or choices.

4.4 There is no profiling undertaken in relation to equalities processing. Profiling is where you analyse parts of an individual’s personality, behaviour, interests and habits to identify their preferences, make predictions or decisions about them.

5 How long we keep your information for and how we securely dispose of it after use

5.1 We keep your personal information for this processing in line with the council’s retention schedules. A copy of the retention schedule can be requested through the council’s website.

5.2 We will securely dispose of your information in line with retention periods, 6 years after your final contact with us.

5.3 If we need to use your information for research or reports, your information will be anonymised and any information taken from notes (handwritten or typed) during any consultation sessions will be securely destroyed. The information will continue to be used in a summarised and anonymised form in any research reports or papers that are published. The anonymised information in the papers may be of historic interest and may be held in public archives indefinitely.

6 How we store your information

6.1 Your information is securely stored on the council’s systems, in which the servers are UK or EU based.

6.2 The information is also stored on The Department for Transport’s Manage Blue Badges system.

7 Your data protection rights

7.1 The law gives you a number of rights to control what personal information is used by us and how we can use it. For further information, please see section 15 of the council’s ‘Corporate Privacy Notice’

7.2 Please be aware that your rights may differ depending on the lawful basis for processing your personal data.

7.3 The right to withdraw consent - You can ask that we no longer use your details for this processing. If you wish to exercise this right, please contact the Data Protection Officer detailed in section 8.1 below.

8 Who to contact

8.1 If you would like further information about how we use your personal information, or you wish to exercise one of your data rights, or you wish to complain about the use of your personal information, please contact the Data Protection Officer.

8.2 If you are still dissatisfied once you have contacted the Data Protection Officer, you have the right to complain to the ICO.

The ICO’s address:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

9 Changes to this privacy notice

9.1 Privacy notices are live documents, which will be updated or revised in line with legislation.

9.2 This privacy notice was last updated on 26 November 2024.

Last updated 28 November 2024