Licensing service privacy notice

Who is the data controller for the information I provide?

Liverpool City Council is the data controller.

Why do we collect your data?

Liverpool City Council has both a legal obligation and public interest justification for carrying out its licensing function to ensure licences are only issued to appropriate people who are required remain 'fit and proper' to hold a licence.

In order to provide our services to you for the purposes of renewing or applying for your licence, we process your information without consent when we are legally allowed to do so.

What is the legal basis for collecting and processing this data?

We will process your information for the purposes of meeting our legal obligations.

Under article 6 1. (c) processing necessary to comply with a legal obligation  that being the requirement to issue licences to drivers, operators and vehicles in accordance with Town Police Clauses 1847, Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 (LGMPA), and under 6 1. (e) processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest namely to ensure the licence holders remain fit and proper as required under the  aforementioned legislation.

Under Article 9 and article 10 it is necessary to process special category data such as criminal convictions in order to protect the vital interests of an individual who is physically or legally incapable of giving consent

We will process your data to:

• Carry out our obligations arising from the renewal of your licence and for applying for a new licence with us.
• Provide you with information, or services that you require to apply for a new licence or apply for the renewal of your licence.
• Notify you from time to time about any changes to any conditions or licensing updates that may affect your licence.
• Check accuracy, which means that we may check your information with other sources within the Council, or with other councils, public authorities and Government departments and they can check your information held by us.
• Carry out audits.
• Prepare statistics, and for research.
• Prevent and detect crime including fraud.
• Confirm your identity to provide some necessary services to meet our legal requirements such as providing evidence for Right to Work Checks under The Immigration Act 2017.
• Contact you by post, email or telephone or SMS text.
• Inform you of key incidents and other events that may impact on your business/activity.
• Ask your opinion about our services and/or carry out and follow necessary consultation processes.

The information we may collect

In order to fulfil its statutory obligation, the organisation collects a range of information about you. This includes:

• Your identification information including gender, nationality, place and date of birth, any previous names and National Insurance number.
• Information relating to your right to work in the UK.
• Contact details.
• Your current address and five-year address history.

It is a legal requirement for the local authority to ensure the applicant is fit and proper under Town Police Clauses Act 1847(TCPA) and Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 and this is done by the production of a DBS certificate as defined by The Police Act 1997.

Therefore copies of your identification documentation in relevant combinations in order to meet DBS criteria – these could include but are not limited to a driving licence, passport, birth certificate, bank statements, utility bills, council tax statements.

The organisation may collect your information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be contained in application forms submitted directly to ourselves or Personnel Checks in hard copy or electronic format, obtained from your passport or other identity documents, submitted by yourself via online website forms, emails, text messages, collected through telephone or face to face interviews.

We may collect information about you whenever you interact with us, for example when you:

• Enquire about our services, visit our website to update or notify of any changes to your personal circumstances such as change of address and notification of convictions or contact details including email or phone numbers.
• Sign up to receive updates from us in relation to Taxi Blasts, roadwork updates, and events including temporary rank provision and closures.
• Post content to our social media sites including Twitter and Facebook.
• Attend a meeting with us and provide us with information about you.
• Make a request for any of the services we provide.

We may also receive information from you from third parties in connection with the renewal of your licence. 

Do I have to provide this information, and what will happen if I don’t?

Failure to provide the information to us will prevent Liverpool City Council from carrying out our legal obligations in processing any application, and ensuring people remain suitable to hold the licence granted in accordance with TPCA and LGMPA.

To ensure that you can be granted a licence or remain to hold a licence granted by the Local Authority, without this information you cannot be granted a licence.

Who will your information be shared with?

We do not sell, trade or rent any personal information to others. We may use third party service providers to help us operate our online application process or administer activities on our behalf, such as reminder letters and documents relating to your renewal. This is conducted by our authorised administrator Personnel Checks Ltd.

Your information may be shared internally for the purpose of the service being provided. All staff who access personal information have received appropriate training on the handling of confidential data. Access to all information restricted by usernames and passwords.

We will also share your information within the Council or with external third parties where it is necessary, and the law allows it. The external bodies we may share data will include Personnel Checks as the authorised administrator for taxi licensing, Police, Home Office and other Government Agency’s including Local Authorities.

How long will you keep this information for and why?

Please see What we do with your data for the council's full retention schedule.

How will my information be stored?

We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

All information you provide to us will be stored in a range of different secure management systems applicable to the type of service we have been engaged to provide, on secure internal IT and email systems and within secure filing cabinets.

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers or on secure servers operated by third parties. Where we have given you, or where you have chosen a password which enables you to access certain parts of our sites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone else.

Source of the data if we are recipient and hold it for others

In order to meet our legal obligations we may receive information about you from internal and external bodies than can include government bodies, local authorities and Police and members of the public.

Will this information be used to take automated decisions about me?

No

Will my data be transferred abroad and why?

No.

What rights do I have when it comes to my data?

You have a number of rights that are set out on the How to access your data page of this section.

Where can I get advice?

View our Help and advice page for more information.

National Fraud Initiative

We participate in the Cabinet Office's National Fraud Initiative (NFI) which is an exercise that matches electronic data within and between public and private sector bodies to prevent and detect fraud.  We are required by law to provide particular sets of data, including personal data, to the Minister for the Cabinet Office for matching.

The use of data for the NFI exercise is carried out with statutory authority under part 6 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014. It does not require the consent of the individuals concerned under Data Protection legislation and General Data Protection Regulations 2018.

Data matching by the Cabinet Office is subject to a Code of Practice.

You can view information on what data we share and the Cabinet Office's legal powers and the reasons why it matches particular information.