Skip to content Skip to footer
Menu

Disclaimer, Copyright and Privacy

At Citizens Advice St Helens, we collect and use your personal information to help solve your problems, improve our services and tackle wider issues in society that affect people’s lives.

This privacy policy explains how we use your information and what your rights are. We handle and store your personal information in line with data protection law and our confidentiality policy. The following pages tell you more about how we use your information in more detail.

 

Our network

Citizens Advice is a membership organisation made up of the national Citizens Advice charity and many local offices across England and Wales, including Citizens Advice St Helens. Citizens Advice St Helens is an independent charity and a member of the national Citizens Advice charity.

All members of the Citizens Advice network are responsible for keeping your personal information safe and making sure data protection law is followed. 

Members of the network also run some jointly designed services and use some of the same systems to process your personal data. In these instances we are joint data controllers for these activities.

 

Jointly controlled data

All offices in the Citizens Advice network use some joint systems to carry out our activities. These include joint case management systems, telephony platforms and more. 

Staff from a different local Citizens Advice can only access your personal information in a joint system if they have a good reason. For example when:

  • you go to a different office to seek advice
  • more than one office is working together in partnership
  • they need to investigate a complaint or incident

We have rules and controls in place to stop people accessing or using your information when they shouldn’t.

Tell an adviser if you’re worried about your details being on a national system. We’ll work with you to take extra steps to protect your information – for example by recording your problem without using your name.

 

How we use your data for advice

For general advice and nationally funded advice programmes please see the national Citizens Advice privacy notice.

The national Citizens Advice charity and each local Citizens Advice operate a system called Casebook to keep your personal information safe. This means they’re a ‘joint data controller’ for your personal information that’s stored in our Casebook system.

Citizens Advice St Helens and The Greater Merseyside Money Advice Project (GMMAP) operate a further database system that securely stores personal information of only persons accessing that service. This means they’re a ‘joint data controller’ for your personal information that’s stored in the GMMAP system.

Each local Citizens Advice is an independent charity, and a member of the national Citizens Advice charity. The Citizens Advice membership agreement also requires that the use of your information complies with data protection law.

 

Our confidentiality policy

At Citizens Advice we have a confidentiality policy which states that anything you tell us as part of advice will not be shared outside of the Citizens Advice network unless you provide your permission for us to do so.

There are some exceptions to this such as needing to share:

  • to prevent an immediate risk of harm to an individual
  • In select circumstances if it is in the best interests of the client
  • where we are compelled to do so by law (e.g. a court order or meeting statutory disclosures)
  • where there is an overriding public interest such as to prevent harm against someone or to investigate a crime
  • to defend against a complaint or legal claim
  • to protect our name and reputation for example to provide our side of a story reported in the press

 

How we use your data for research, feedback and statistics

National Citizens Advice covers their use of data for this purpose in their privacy notice.

 

How we use your data for fundraising and donations

National Citizens Advice covers their use of data for fundraising in their privacy notice.

 

Your data protection rights

You have rights in relation to your personal data that we hold. Your rights include being able to request:

  • Access to copies of your data
  • Corrections are made to inaccurate data
  • Deletion of your personal data
  • Object to how we use your personal data

These rights are not absolute and may not apply in every circumstance. For more information about your rights you can visit the ICO website.

 

Raising a concern about how we use your information

If you are concerned about how we have handled your personal information please contact us at enquiries@casthelens.org.uk.

You can also contact the national charity if you are unhappy with how we have used your personal data or wish to raise a concern about how a local office has handled your personal data. To do so you can email us at DPO@citizensadvice.org.uk

 

Contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

You can also raise your concern with the Information Commissioner’s Office which regulates data protection law in the UK. if you are unhappy with how we have used your personal information. They will normally expect you to have made a complaint to us directly in the first instance.

  • Visit the ICO website.
  • Address: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
  • Helpline number: 0303 123 1113