Promoted by Sioned Williams, 34 Alfred Street, Neath, SA11 1EH

Privacy Notice FOR CONSTITUENTS and CONTACTS

I, Sioned Williams am a Member of the Senedd for South Wales West.

One of my key roles as a Member of the Senedd is to raise issues on behalf of constituents. As such I will often collect and use personal information relating to constituents as part of my role. From time to time I will also contact my constituents to ask them to complete surveys to gather information and opinions on matters relevant to my role as a Member of the Senedd.

In the sections below, when referring to constituents I will use the terms “you” or “your”.

This privacy notice sets out information relating to how I will use your personal information and sets out what rights you have in relation to your personal information under data protection law.

What’s MY approach to privacy?

I take your privacy extremely seriously and want you to feel confident that your personal information is safe in my hands.

I will only use your personal information in accordance with the data protection law applicable to England and Wales from time to time.

Under data protection law, when I use your personal information, I will be acting as a data controller. Essentially, this means that I will be making decisions about how to use your personal information and why.

• how will I use your personal information?

How I will use your personal information, the legal bases I will rely upon, how long I will keep your personal information and other details are set out below.

CASEWORK & DEMOCRATIC ENGAGEMENT

What personal information I will use	Your name, your contact details (postal address, email address, telephone number, national insurance number, driving licence number or other information relevant to your case etc.); Information provided about you when raising an issue or a concern with me. This information may include special category personal information such as your racial or ethnic origins, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, membership of a trade union, physical or mental health (including details of any disability) or sexual orientation.  It may also include information concerning criminal convictions or the commission or alleged commission of any offence. Any opinions you provide (including political opinions) in response to any survey or information gathering exercise.
How I will obtain the personal information	Provided by you when you contact me with an enquiry or concern or by a third party where the enquiry or concern is raised on your behalf.
What purposes I will use the personal information for	I will use your name, address and other contact details to communicate with you about the issue or concern raised and to provide you with updates and feedback. I will use your personal information to progress your issue or concern and to take steps to address the matter. I will use your name, address, and other contact details to undertake surveys and information and opinion gathering in order to inform and appraise my work as your Member of the Senedd. Please note that I will not share any of your personal information which you provide in engagement activities which are funded by the Senedd Commission for party political or campaigning purposes.
The legal bases for processing I rely upon	My use of your personal information in connection with the purposes set out above is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in me. This is generally because the processing of your personal information by me will be in performance of activities which by their nature support or promote democratic engagement. Where your issue or concern is one which involves the processing of special category personal information, my use of your special category personal information will be necessary for reasons of substantial public interest. This is because the processing is carried out by me in my capacity as an elected representative, in connection with the discharge of my functions and is in response to a request by you to take action or a request on your behalf. Where any opinions (including political opinions) you provide in response to any survey or information gathering exercise involves the processing of special category personal information, my use of your special category personal information will be necessary for reasons of substantial public interest in respect of my political activities, namely political surveys.
How long I retain the personal information and why	I will retain your personal information until your case is closed and for a further 5  year period, or until the next Welsh Parliament/Senedd Cymru election, whichever is sooner.  This is because it may be used for reference if further issues arise.

NEWSLETTER UPDATES AND DIRECT MARKETING

What personal information I will use	Your name, your contact details (postal address, email address, telephone number etc.).
How I will obtain the personal information	Provided by you or obtained from the Electoral Register.
What purposes I will use the personal information for	To provide you with newsletters and updates about the work I undertake in your area and in the Welsh Parliament/Senedd Cymru.
The legal bases for processing I rely upon	For electronic communications, you have given your consent. For communications other than by electronic means, my use of your personal information is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in me. This is because the processing of personal information by me in order to communicate with electors will be in performance of activities which support or promote democratic engagement.
How long I retain the personal information and why	Where I process your personal information to communicate for direct marketing purposes, I will retain your personal information unless and until you inform me that you no longer wish to receive direct marketing from me. You can ask me to stop sending you these communications at any time by contacting me on [email protected]

 

OTHER CONTACTS

I will collect and process contact details of individuals (including: councillors, community groups, organisations, group contacts, and other stakeholders) who I work with on particular issues in order to progress constituents cases and other activities which support or promote democratic engagement.

What personal information I will use	Your name, your contact details (postal address, email address, telephone number etc.). [Information provided may also include special category personal information such as your political opinions.] [Any opinions you provide (including political opinions) in response to any survey or information gathering exercise.]
How I will obtain the personal information	Provided by you where you have contacted me, or I have taken from the public domain.
What purposes I will use the personal information for	To obtain advice and assistance in dealing with a case; to progress issues; to inform you of pertinent information; and, to undertake other activities which support or promote democratic engagement [(for example political surveys]. [To provide you with newsletters and updates about the work I undertake in the Welsh Parliament/Senedd Cymru.]
The legal bases for processing I rely upon	My use of your personal information in connection with the purposes set out above is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in me. This is generally because the processing of your personal information by me will be in performance of activities which by their nature support or promote democratic engagement. [Where I process your special category personal information, my use of your special category personal information will be necessary for reasons of substantial public interest. This is because the processing is necessary in connection with the discharge of my functions and is in response to a request by an individual, or on behalf of an individual, to take action on their behalf.] ] [Where any opinions (including political opinions) you provide in response to any survey or information gathering exercise involves the processing of special category personal information, my use of your special category personal information will be necessary for reasons of substantial public interest in respect of my political activities, namely political surveys.]
How long I retain the personal information and why	I will retain your personal information until the case it is connected with is closed and for a further 5 year period, or until the next Welsh Parliament/Senedd Cymru election, whichever is sooner.  This is because it may be used for reference if further issues arise. Where I process your personal information to communicate for direct marketing purposes, I will retain your personal information unless and until you inform me that you no longer wish to receive direct marketing from me. You can ask me to stop sending you these communications at any time by contacting me [email protected]

 

WHEN WILL I sharE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH OTHERS?

Sometimes, I will need to share your personal information with others. This section sets out details of who I will share your personal information with and why. It also tells you about my legal bases for doing so under data protection law and the steps I will take to protect your personal information.

Please note that I will not share any of your personal information which you provide in engagement activities which are funded by the Senedd Commission for party political or campaigning purposes.

 

THE SENEDD COMMISSION

Information about our relationship with the Senedd Commission	The Senedd Commission is the independent body which, amongst other things, supports Members of the Senedd in their work.
Why I need to share your personal information with staff of the Senedd Commission	To obtain advice and assistance in dealing with your issue or concern.
The legal basis I rely upon when sharing your personal information	Sharing of personal information with staff at the Senedd Commission will be necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in me. This is generally because the processing of your personal information by me will be in performance of activities which by their nature supports or promotes democratic engagement.
What precautions do I take?	Staff at the Senedd Commission have undertaken data protection training and are aware of the importance of protecting personal information. The Senedd Commission has in place appropriate policies and security measures to protect your personal information.

OTHER ORGANISATIONS WHO CAN ASSIST WITH YOUR CASE

Who are these Organisations?	I will share such of your personal information as is necessary with organisations who can assist with your case. Often these will be organisations such as local authorities and health boards which will, from time to time, depending on the nature of your query or concern, be able to assist with your case or will have information relevant to your case.
Why I need to share your personal information with them	To assist with your case or to obtain information relevant to your case.
The legal bases I rely upon when sharing your personal information	Sharing of personal information with such organisations will be necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in me. This is generally because the processing of your personal information by me will be in performance of casework activities which by their nature supports or promotes democratic engagement.
What precautions do I take?	I will only share personal information as is necessary and will take steps to determine that the organisations are aware of the importance of protecting personal information.

PROVIDERS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

Who will we be sharing your personal information with?	The Senedd Commission’s ICT infrastructure, which includes cloud service provided by Microsoft; Case management software: Caseworker CaseworkerGov (electedtechnologies.com) Website: www.sionedwilliams.wales NationBuilder: Build the Future
Why I need to share your personal information with such providers	I use suppliers of information technology products and services in connection with the supply, maintenance and/or improvement of my IT network, to manage casework effectively through appropriate software provision, and the creation, development hosting and maintenance of my website.
The legal bases I rely upon when sharing your personal information	In relation to electronic communications sent to, you have given your consent. In all other circumstances, I rely upon my legitimate interests in ensuring that my work as a Member of the Senedd is managed efficiently and my IT system can function properly and efficiently and that my IT network is secure.
What precautions do we take?	I or the Senedd Commission (as appropriate) enter into contracts with my IT providers which require them to put appropriate security measures in place and which restrict their use of your personal information.

OTHER THIRD PARTIES

I may also need to share your personal information with others in the following circumstances:

Legal or regulatory requirements	On occasions, I may be required to disclose your personal information to organisations such as the courts or the police to comply with legal obligations we are subject to and/or to prevent fraud or crime.
Safeguarding	On occasions, I may need to disclose your personal information to other organisations such as the local authority or the police for safeguarding purposes in the substantial public interest.
Professional advice and legal action	I may need to disclose your personal information to my professional advisers (for example, lawyers and accountants) in connection with the provision by them of professional advice and/or the establishment or defence of legal claims.
Group Leader	I may need to disclose your personal information to the Group Leader of my political party in order to obtain advice and assistance from staff of the Group in order to deal with your issue or concern. Sharing of personal information will be necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in me. This is generally because the processing of your personal information by me will be in performance of casework activities which by their nature supports or promotes democratic engagement.

 

ENGAGING WITH ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Any social media posts or comments you send (on my Facebook page, for instance) will be shared under the terms of the relevant social media platform (e.g. Facebook or Twitter) on which they are written and could be made public.  I do not control these platforms and am not responsible for this kind of sharing. Before you make any remarks or observations, you should review the terms and conditions and privacy policies of the social media platforms you use. That way, you will understand how they will use your information, what information relating to you they will place in the public domain, and how you can stop them from doing so if you are unhappy about it.

 

CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH I will send your personal information outside the UK

Other than the cloud service provided by Microsoft, I do not envisage a need to send your personal information outside the UK . Microsoft has put a written contract in place incorporating model clauses relating to the transfer of personal information outside the UK which provide safeguards to protect your personal information.

If it becomes necessary in any other circumstance to transfer your personal information outside the UK I will let you know, but rest assured that if I do need to transfer your personal information outside the UK, I will use one of these safeguards to make sure it is protected:

• I will only transfer it to a country outside the UK which the UK Government has decided has an adequate level of protection for personal information. You can find more about such countries here https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/international-transfers-after-uk-exit/; or
• I will put a written contract in place between me and the recipient that incorporates model clauses relating to the transfer of personal information outside the UK ; or
• I will obtain your explicit consent to do so.

 

WHAT RIGHTS DO YOU HAVE UNDER DATA PROTECTION LAW?

Under data protection law, you have a number of different rights relating to the use of your personal information which apply in certain circumstances. In summary, those rights are:

• A right of access – this is a right to obtain a copy of our personal information that is processed by me and some additional supplementary information.
• A right to have inaccurate personal information rectified
• A right to erasure – this is a right, in certain circumstances, to have your personal information deleted or removed
• A right to object – this is a right, in certain circumstances, to object to the use of your personal information. If you object to me using your personal information for political campaigning or direct marketing purposes I must stop using your information in this way.
• A right to restrict processing - this is a right to ‘block’ or suppress processing of your personal information.
• Request data portability of your personal information – this is a right, in certain circumstances, to require that I provide you with an electronic copy of your personal information either for your own use or so that you can share it with another organisation.

More information about your rights and my obligations can be found on the ICO website https://ico.org.uk/.

If you wish to exercise any of your rights, you can make a request by contacting me at [email protected]

If you request the exercise of any of your rights I am entitled to ask you to provide me with any information that may be necessary to confirm your identity.

Your right to withdraw consent

If you have given me your consent to use any of your personal information, you can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting [email protected]  or by another method outlined below.

 

how can you get in touch with ME?

You can get in touch with me in the following ways:

Postal address	34 Alfred Street, Neath, SA11 1EH
Email address	[email protected]
Phone number	01639 203204

 

I am the person overseeing compliance with data protection law and this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice, how your personal information is handled or if you wish to make a complaint, please contact me.

 

RIGHT TO COMPLAIN TO the information commissioner’s officer

If I am unable to deal with a complaint to your satisfaction or if you are unhappy with the way I am using your personal information, you also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the UK’s supervisory authority for data protection issues, the Information Commissioner’s Office.

CHANGES TO this privacy notice

I may update this privacy notice from time to time. If I make any substantial updates, I will provide you with a new privacy notice. I may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information. 

This version of the privacy policy was published on March, 21, 2022.

Privacy policy for Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales

This is our privacy policy. It is for anyone who comes into contact with us – voters, members, young people, volunteers and donors.

We can provide a copy of the policy in other formats such as large print. If you would like a copy in a different format, please contact our Data Protection Officer.

This privacy policy demonstrates our commitment to protecting your personal information.

We will process your personal information in line with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Political parties gather information about people’s political opinions. This is entirely proper and in the public interest, as long as appropriate protection is in place. This privacy notice provides information about how we protect your personal information.

Contacting us about your information rights

If you would like more information about how we use your personal information, or to exercise your rights relating to it, you can contact our Data Protection Officer as follows.

By post:          Plaid Cymru, Tŷ Gwynfor, Llys Anson, Glanfa’r Iwerydd, CAERDYDD, CF10 4AL

By email:        [email protected]

By phone:      02920 472272

The information we process

We process the personal information of every person on the electoral register in Wales. We do this to help us encourage people to become involved in politics, as well as to promote our own political aims. We process your political opinions if you provide them to us directly or if they are publicly available. We also process information on the political opinions of our members, donors, supporters and volunteers.

We will not make your information (including information on your political opinions) public, unless we have to do so by law.

We will never sell your personal information to third parties. Sometimes we share your information with companies that help us in our work, but only if we have the legal right to do so. For example, we share people’s names and addresses with companies that send you election leaflets.

The information we collect

The electorate in Wales

We get a copy of the electoral registers from the local authorities in Wales. The electoral register gives us the following information.

• Your name
• Your address
• Your date of birth (if you are )
• Your electoral registration number (which allows us to know where you will vote at elections and referendums)
• Whether or not you have a postal vote
• Whether you voted in an election or referendum (but not how you voted)

If we contact you to ask for your political opinion and you give us that information, we will keep a record of it. We do this so that we can:

• decide whether we should send you our campaigning materials;
• choose what campaigning materials to send you; and
• decide whether we think you are likely to vote, and for which party or cause (in a referendum).

The lawful basis (legal reason) for us processing this information is ‘public task’. This lawful basis allows political parties to process personal information. You can find out more about this from the Information Commissioner.

Members

When you sign up as a member you give us your name and contact information. We use this information to provide our membership services to you. We can also process your bank details if you give us them so you can pay by direct debit.

The lawful basis for us processing this information is ‘contract’. That is because your membership of Plaid Cymru means that we provide services for you as part of a contract. 

Donors

If you make a donation to Plaid Cymru, we will process your personal information to make sure the money gets to our bank account.

We must also process your personal information in the following circumstances.

• If you donate more than £500 we must check that you are registered to vote. We must also keep a record of your name and address.
• If you donate more than £7,500 we must also report your name, and the amount of the donation, to the Electoral Commission. They publish the information in a public register.

We keep a record of smaller donations on our database.

The lawful basis for processing your donations is ‘legitimate interest’. The lawful basis for processing your information if you donate more than £500 is ‘legal obligation’.

Supporters

When you become a supporter of Plaid Cymru online, we will record your support on our database. The lawful basis for processing this information is ‘public task’.

Volunteers

When you volunteer to help us, we will record how you want to help. The lawful basis for processing this information is ‘public task’.

Attending events

If you confirm that you will attend our conferences and events, we will keep your contact information on our database. The lawful basis for processing this information is ‘legitimate interest’.

Website

We will keep your contact details if you provide them through our website. We will use this information to keep you up to date with things you are interested in. The lawful basis for us processing this information is ‘public task’.

CCTV

We use CCTV to make sure that our staff are safe and our office is secure. We keep footage for 28 days and then delete it. We have signs so that staff and visitors know that they are being recorded. The lawful basis for processing this information is ‘legitimate interest’.

Who we share your information with

We will never sell your information. Sometimes we share it with companies that help us in our work, but only if we have the legal right to do so.

We may share information with:

• mailing companies, so that voters and members can be sent information
• email software providers such as NationBuilder
• elected representatives, candidates and local campaigners, and
• regulatory bodies and law-enforcement agencies, when necessary for investigations.

How long we keep your information for

We regularly review the information we hold, how relevant it is and whether we need to keep it. We will only keep your personal information for as long as we need it. Please contact us if you would like a copy.

Cookies

A cookie is a tiny text file that is stored on your computer. We may use cookies to track the ways people move about our website. We also use them to monitor the website’s security. You can usually prevent cookies by using the tools in your browser.

We may store the internet address you used to connect to our computer, the time and date you connected, browser information and the pages you visited.

Targeting cookies: These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
google.com
youtube.com

Performance & Analytics cookies:
Google Analytics

Log files and statistics

We use a range of technical systems to keep an eye on how our website is working, including:

• IP addresses
• URLs of documents downloaded
• timestamps
• HTTP user-agents, and
• Google Analytics (which itself uses cookies to analyse how visitors use our website).

Transferring your information outside the European Economic Area

Some of our service providers are based outside of the European Economic Area (EEA), so we may sometimes need to share your personal information outside of the EEA. If we do transfer your data outside the EEA we will make sure that it is protected in the same way as if the information was inside the EEA.

We will make sure of this by:

• sending the information to a service provider in a country where the data-protection standards are approved by the EU
• transferring it to an organisation that meets the standards of the EU-US ‘Privacy Shield’, and
• having a contract with the party we are sending the information to, the terms of which specify that they need to keep to the necessary standards.

How we protect your information

The security of your information is very important to us. We protect it with technical and organisational measures. We regularly review our security measures to make sure that your information is safe.

Your rights over your information 

We will act as quickly as possible when you ask to exercise any of your data rights (set out below), which will be within one month unless your request is particularly complex. In this case we will tell you about the delay and our reasons for it.

Your data rights

Right of access – you can ask for a copy of your personal information and details of how we use. This request is commonly known as a subject access request. 

Right of rectification – you can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information about you.

Right to be forgotten – you can ask us to delete information we hold about you.

Right to restriction of processing – you can ask us to restrict how we process your information.

Right to object – you can ask us to stop contacting you personally. However, we still have the right to send you an addressed leaflet at election time, and you may still receive unaddressed leaflets.

Right to object to processing political data – you can ask us to stop processing information about your political opinions.

Profiling

If we have information about your voting intentions and your voting history, we will assess how likely it is that you will vote for Plaid Cymru. This is called profiling, and we don’t think that this has a significant effect on you.

Making a complaint 

If you are unhappy with how we have processed or handled your information you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is the supervisory body authorised by the Data Protection Act 2018 to regulate how personal information is collected, used and stored in the United Kingdom. The contact details for the Information Commissioner’s Office are as follows.

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF

Phone: 0303 123 1113
Website: www.ico.org.uk/concerns/

This version of the privacy policy was published on 18 December 2019.