Public Health Services Privacy Notices

Here you can find information about how Public Health use information about you and protects your privacy.

Introduction

This privacy notice explains how the council uses your data to understand more about the health and care needs of the population/s in our area.

What personal data do we use?

Nottinghamshire County Council uses data and information it receives from a range of sources including hospitals and the health service. In particular, the county council receives:

patient information relating to hospital stays and attendances in NHS hospitals in England ('Hospital Episode Statistics')
information relating to recorded births and deaths.

We hold the following data collections that contain various different types of data about individuals and populations:

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) are pseudonymised records about health care and treatment you may have received in any English hospital in the form of Hospital Episode Statistics. This includes inpatient and day case admissions, outpatient appointments and accident and emergency attendances. This data is supplied by NHS Digital (previously the Health and Social Care Information Centre) to us under licence. We do not hold identifiable HES data.

Births and deaths information. The Primary Care Mortality Database provides us with access to identifiable mortality data as provided at the time of the registration of the death, along with additional General Practice details, geographical indexing and coroner details where applicable. This includes the address, postcode of residence of the deceased, postcode of the place of death, NHS number, date of birth, date of death, name of certifier, and cause of death. Our access to the data is based on geographical boundaries as an upper tier local authority and clinical commissioning groups within Nottinghamshire.

Births data tables. This dataset provides us with access to identifiable data about the number of births that occur within our geographical boundaries as an upper tier local authority and clinical Commissioning groups within Nottinghamshire. It includes the address of usual residence of mother, place of birth, postcode of usual residence of the mother, postcode of place of birth of child, NHS number of child and the date of birth of the child. This data is only supplied to us by NHS Digital under strict licence and data disclosure controls.

Vital statistics tables – This dataset is aggregated together so that it does not identify individuals. It contains data on live and still births, fertility rates, maternity statistics, death registrations and cause of death analysis by our geographical boundaries as an upper tier local authority and clinical commissioning groups within Nottinghamshire. This data is only supplied to us by NHS Digital under strict licence and data disclosure controls. We use the data to measure the health, mortality, morbidity and care requirements of our population, allowing us to plan and deliver health and care services in a co-ordinated and efficient way.

What types of special category personal data do we need from you?

As described above, the information includes data related to health.

Why do we use your data?

The information helps us to understand more about the nature and causes of disease and ill-health in the area. The information is used to support:

initiatives aimed at protecting the health of Nottinghamshire’s population
the Health and Wellbeing Board’s duty to carry out a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment
commissioning of services.

What legal reasons allow us to use your data in this way?

Our legal basis for processing your personal data is Section 12 'Duties as to improvement of public health' Health and Social Care Act 2012.

We follow Section 42(4) of the SRSA (2007) as amended by section 287 of the Health and Social Care Act (2012) and Regulation 3 of the Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002.

Our legal bases for processing your special category personal data is substantial public interest on the basis of the above legislation.

What will happen if you do not provide or we cannot obtain the data needed?

We could not fulfill our statutory obligations under the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

Who may we share your data with or receive it from?

Anonymised statistical data may be shared with:

NHS agencies (GPs, Hospitals)
health organisations
clinical commissioning groups.

Only aggregated data where individuals cannot be identified will be shared with these organisations. This is part of our mandatory duty to provide public health advice to CCGs.

Does the service make decisions using fully automated processes?

No.

Appendix A

Who will be using your data?

Nottinghamshire County Council will process your data and we may also contract third parties to process your data on our behalf

May personal data be transferred overseas?

The Council may for operational purposes transfer personal data overseas. In these cases, we will ensure that your personal data is protected and there are safeguards for the protection of your rights. Please refer to the County Council’s privacy statement for further details.

How long is your data kept for?

This information is held in accordance with the Council’s retention schedule – see here.

With regard to use of this data, you have the right to:

be informed about how we use your data
access a copy of your data that we process
have us rectify or correct your data that we process
restrict our processing of your personal data
object to the use of your data
have your personal data erased
request that we transfer your information to you or another organisation
object to fully automated decision making
withdraw your consent (if it the legal reason why we use your data).

Some of these rights are subject to exceptions. Please refer to the County Council’s privacy statement part 10 for further details.

Contact the Data Protection Officer

If you have any concerns about how the Council is using your data you can contact the Council’s Data Protection Officer by writing to:

Data Protection Officer
Nottinghamshire County Council
County Hall
West Bridgford
Nottingham
NG2 7QP

Email: DPO@nottscc.gov.uk

Please see the County Council’s privacy statement for further information.

Contact details of the Information Commissioner’s Office

If you are unhappy with how your data has been processed by the Council or you feel your data protection rights have been breached you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at:

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF
www.ico.org.uk