1. Purpose of the processing and the legal basis for the processing:
For Cost-of-Living services, Fife Council may need to process and share information about you with other Council Services/agencies/organisations in order to:
- Process your enquiry or service request
- Refer your request for a benefit calculation/check/ support to a third party, where appropriate. Third parties can include other authorised organisations or individuals
- Refer your request for everyday items to a third party, where appropriate. Third parties can include other authorised organisations or individuals
Fife Council has a statutory duty in relation to the protection of public health and our legal basis for processing the information is:
- For the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the Council;
- For reasons of substantial public interest;
- To protect your vital interest.
2. Please describe the categories of personal data processed by your Service or service:
The personal information we gather and use includes:
- Name, Date of Birth, Gender, Home Address, Home Telephone Number, Mobile Number, E-Mail Address, Fuel Debt Amount, Bank Details.
- Details of your benefit check request – this may include some health / medical / disability / residency status details in relation to your eligibility.
- Details of your circumstances to establish whether you are eligible for help with your fuel debt.
3. Any recipient or categories of recipients of the personal data:
Where it is necessary to progress your application, we may share your information with third sector partners/agencies to ensure correct advice is given in complicated situations.
We may also share your personal information with other Council Services, other local authorities, the U.K. Government. and organisations in the third sector that are providing additional benefit support, where this is necessary to provide requested services.
4. The source the personal data originates from and whether it came from publicly accessible sources (including information gathered about third parties e.g. where we have gathered information about a third party during discussions with a service user):
We may obtain information about you from the UK Government when you complete an application form for an energy bill/alternative fuel payment.
We may receive information about you from other Council Services.
We collect information about you when you contact us directly via phone or via an application form. We may also gather personal information about other individuals relevant to your application.
We may use information already available to us to identify households which, according to Scottish Government Guidance criteria, may be more vulnerable to the impact of the cost of living.
5. Whether the provision of personal data is part of a statutory or contractual requirement or obligation and possible consequences of failing to provide the personal data:
In the event that we did not request and use this information then it would not be possible to carry out our statutory functions and provide you with a service.
We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, emergency planning or reporting requirements.
This privacy notice also applies to the Assessor appointed by Fife Council in accordance with the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. The Assessors own privacy notice can be found at: