Avon Fire & Rescue Service Pensioners Association Privacy Notice
This Privacy Notice describes how Avon Fire & Rescue Service Pensioners Association will collect and use personal information relating to our members, honorary members and any other individual who is known to us.
Who we are
Avon Fire & Rescue Service Pensioners Association (the ‘Association’) exist primarily to promote and safeguard in every way, the interests and rights of retired members of Avon Fire & Rescue Service (formally Avon Fire Brigade) and their dependants, whilst at the same time provide an opportunity for social exchange between colleagues. All members share a common interest to help preserve the history of Avon Fire & Rescue Service, the Fire Service at large and to support each other. We also have our own dedicated website https://avonfirepensioners.org/ , which is supported by Avon Fire & Rescue Service. The Association is a ‘not for profit’ organisation ran by former Service members who volunteer their time.
We are affiliated to the National Association of Retired Firefighters (NARF).
Avon Fire & Rescue Service Pensioners Association is the ‘Data Controller’ for information collected on behalf of the Association and that of its website.
Personal Information we collect and/or process
For the Association to function effectively, we collect and use different types of personal information about you or your next of kin. The Data Protection legislation states that we can only process personal information fairly and lawfully if we satisfy one of the lawful processing conditions set out in the legislation. For further information about these conditions, please refer to ICO website https://ico.org.uk .
| Type of information: | Examples:
(Please note that the examples are illustrative and non-exhaustive.) |
Sources:
|
Lawful conditions for processing |
| Members
|
Your full name; date of birth; home address; telephone number; email address; last station or department served; rank of position held at time of retirement; retirement date; bank details for subscriptions; and name of spouse or long term partner/next of kin | Pensioners Association Membership Form; bank mandate form or BANES mandate form; that you complete (paper or electronic format) and correspondence with you. | To enter into a Contract to become a member of the Association |
| Honorary members | Your full name; home address; telephone number; email address; and next of kin | You | Consent |
| Fire Service history | Photographs; documents; memorabilia; and historical events that may contain personal information for both living and deceased individuals | You, your family members/friends/ former colleagues; Avon Fire & Rescue Service; Bristol Records Office; local libraries; Fire Service historians; NARF; websites; and other interested third parties | Consent and for the legitimate purposes of the Association or a third party |
| Bereavement notices | Name; last station or department served; rank of position held at time of retirement; retirement date; funeral details for the deceased; and any other information offered by the family/ next of kin | Family members; next of kin; friends and former colleagues; notices in local press; and Avon Pension Fund | Consent of family or for the legitimate purposes of the AF&RS Pensioners Association or a third party |
| Retirements | Details of forthcoming colleagues’ retirement functions, which can include a photograph | The individual concerned and at request from their Watch/department | Consent or for the legitimate purposes of the AF&RS Pensioners Association or a third party |
| Other events and AF&RS Staff Bulletin | Contact details; photographs; and information about colleagues | Person organising event; and AF&RS | Consent or for the legitimate purposes of the AF&RS Pensioners Association or a third party |
| Welfare support for members and honorary members | Request for hospital visits and home visits etc. | You; family; friends; and colleagues | Consent |
| Forthcoming retirements for AF&RS staff | Names of staff and retirement dates | AF&RS HR department | For the legitimate purposes of the AF&RS Pensioners Association or a third party (AF&RS) |
| Information published on the Avon Fire Pensioners’ website | As per Fire Service History, bereavement notices, retirements and events | As above | Consent or for the legitimate purposes of the AF&RS Pensioners Association or a third party |
Please note that we will only process personal information for legitimate purposes if it does not impose on the rights and freedoms of the individual concerned and we will always take into account their expectations and circumstances.
As part of the member process, we do not ask you to provide any sensitive personal data (which is now known as ‘special category’ data), such as ethnicity, health data sexual orientation, trade union membership or religion , however, we may be informed of state of health to enable welfare visits and provide support. This is usually at your request, the request of your family/friends, or information that has been passed on to us by a third party that we upon act in good faith.
If you are using someone else’s email address for communications, please ensure that you have their permission and they are aware of this Privacy Notice.
Reasons we collect, use and may share your personal information
We need to collect and use your personal information for a number of purposes, including:
- To administer your membership and the general administration of the Association;
- To administer your annual subscriptions, which is facilitated by Avon Pension Fund (which is managed by Bath & North East Somerset Council);
- Facilitate your NARF subscriptions;
- Organisation of the Annual General Meeting;
- So that we can provide welfare support for our members and family;
- So that we can provide communications to our members of bereavements, general notices, AF&RS Staff Bulletins and forthcoming events;
- Signposting you to other services, such as the Firefighters Charity, Age Concern and other pensioners organisations; and
- To preserve the history of the Fire Service.
Protecting your personal information
Members’ personal information is held on a confidential database and the contents of which are for administration purposes of the Association only, and are not available to any third party, unless you have provided your consent or we are required by law to disclose that information. We have appropriate physical and technical security measures in place to protect that information. We do not transfer your personal information outside the European Economic Area.
On joining the Association you would complete the appropriate documentation for us to share your information with the Avon Pension Fund (which is managed by Bath & North East Council) and NARF, for subscription purposes. Any information held or that you share direct with NARF or any other organisation (such as when requesting advice) will be held by them and subject to their own security controls and policies.
Often we get requests for former colleagues or their families for other members’ contact details, and in the event of this, we will not pass on your details until we have your consent unless there is a legitimate reason for doing so.
How long we will keep your data
Regarding information that we keep on our membership database, we will only process personal information about you from the initial membership application to the point where you either request to leave the Association or upon your death and then your record is deleted.
We retain general correspondence for 5 years from when the matter is closed unless it holds an historical account for the Fire Service, such as news and information held on our website. Such information will be retained indefinitely, until such time is it no longer required for the purpose or it can no longer be maintained.
Website
The Association subscribes to an external organisation called WordPress, which is part of the Automattic Group, to host the Avon Fire Pensioners website. WordPress provide the content management platform for the website, however, the actual customisation and content of the website is provided and administered by the Association, (the ‘Data Controller’) with support from Avon Fire & Rescue Service. Our subscription level for this service prevents the use of third party marketing aimed at our website users. Any website Cookies are set by WordPress, who provide further information via their Cookie Policy on their website: https://wordpress.org/about/privacy/cookies/
Please note that any biographical information featured on the Avon Fire Pensioners website will be available within the public domain, which is information either provided by you for the purposes of the website, or sourced from elsewhere and published with consent (if practical to gain consent), or for the legitimate purposes of the Avon Fire Pensioners Association, or a third party, providing it does not impose on the rights and freedoms of the individuals concerned. Website content information will also be shared with WordPress by default. Any information published on the website is done in good faith.
For further information about WordPress and to access their user Privacy Notice, please visit their website https://wordpress.org/about/privacy/.
Requesting access to your details and your information rights
You have a right to access and obtain a copy of the personal data that the Association holds about you and to ask us to correct your personal data if there are any errors, or it is out of date or incomplete, by contacting us in writing at the address below. In certain circumstances you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data or to ask us to restrict the processing until any errors are corrected or to transfer your personal data. We do not use automated processing or profiling regarding your data.
In the event that we refuse your request, we will provide you with the reasons why and details of our appeals process.
If you no longer wish for us to contact you by a certain method, or you wish to be removed from our general communications list, please contact us as below.
Further information about these information rights is available from Information Commissioner’s Office at: www.ico.org.uk or via its telephone helpline (0303 123 1113).
Contact Details
If you wish to contact someone at the Association about how we handle your personal information, please contact:
AF&RS Pensioners Association Secretary Email: avonpensioners@gmail.com
Or the ‘Contact us’ form on the website: https://avonfirepensioners.org/contact-us/
If you have concerns
If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, we would prefer you contact to us initially so that we have the opportunity to see if we can put things right. However, if you are unhappy with the way that we have processed your information or how we have responded to your request to exercise any of your rights in relation to your data, you can raise your concerns direct with the Information Commissioner’s Office.
The Information Commissioner’s Office is an independent body set up to uphold information rights in the UK. They can be contacted through their website: www.ico.org.uk or their helpline on 0303 123 1113, or in writing to:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Further Information:
For more information about the Association, including a copy of the Constitution, please contact the Pensioners Association Secretary as above or visit the Avon Fire Pensioners’ website.
All of the definitions concerning data protection, such as ‘lawful processing’, ‘special categories of data’ and ‘Data Controller’ are taken from the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). Further information about the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 can be obtained from the ICO’s website www.ico.org.uk.
This Privacy Notice will be reviewed and circulated to members on an annual basis. However, should any changes in the way that we process your data or changes to legislation occur in the meantime, we reserve the right to amend this Privacy Notice and the most recent version will be published on our Privacy Notice page of our website.
The date given below will be the most recent version.
06.09.2018
Pensioners Association 