Who we are and what we do

We are “Publica” and are a council owned employment company which delivers shared services between Cotswold, West Oxfordshire, and Forest of Dean District Councils and Cheltenham Borough Council (hereon known as “Clients”.  Publica additionally provides services to the Cheltenham Trust, Cheltenham Borough Homes and UBICO (an environmental services local authority company) (heron known as “Clients”

Our Human Resources (HR) will only collect and process information in relation to you as a ‘nominated emergency contact or next of kin’ of a Publica Group employee.

This notice explains why we ask for your personal information, how that information will be used and how you can access your records.

Any questions regarding our privacy practices should be sent to:

Data Protection Officer (DPO)
Publica Group
Trinity Road, Cirencester, GL7 1PX
Email: data.protection@publicagroup.uk
Tel: 01993 861194

Why we need your information and how we use it

In In the event that we have to use an employee’s emergency contract and/or next of kin details,  the Publica Group has a legitimate interest in processing this personal data during the employment relationship of an employee. Processing emergency contact and next of kin data allows the Publica Group to:

• maintain accurate and up-to-date employment records and contact details (including details of who to contact in the event of an emergency)

What type of information is collected from you

The Publica Group will collect this data from employees who have directly nominated you as their emergency contact and/or next of kin. We will collect the following information from them about you :

• name,
• relationship to the employee,
• address,
• email address
• contact number.

Data will be stored in the Publica Group HR Management System.

Who your information may be shared with (internally and externally)

Your information will be held on the Publica Group’s HR Management System. The Human Resources team will have access to the data on a day to day basis. If a line manager informs the HR team they need to contact an employee's emergency contact/next of kin, reasons will be sought from the manager and data given if deemed appropriate by Human Resources. Examples of this may be (however not exhaustive):

• An employee has become unwell at work and taken to hospital
• An employee has not reported for work. After failed attempts to contact the employee directly, an emergency contact/next of kin may be contacted.
• Each situation will be considered depending on its individual circumstances

Your information will be shared internally with your nominated employee’s line manager, HR Business Partner access to the data is necessary for the performance of their roles.

How long we keep your information (retention period)

The Publica Group will hold your personal data for the duration of an employee employment, or until they notify Publica you are no longer their emergency contact/next of kin.

More information on our retention schedule can be found online

How we protect your Information

We will not transfer your personal data outside the EU without your consent.

We have implemented generally accepted standards of technology and operational security in order to protect personal data from loss, misuse, or unauthorised alteration or destruction.  

Please note however that where you are transmitting information to us over the internet this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure.  

For any payments which we take from you online we will use a recognised online secure payment system.

We will notify you promptly in the event of any breach of your personal data which might expose you to serious risk.

Your rights 

You have rights under the Data Protection Legislations:

• to access your personal data
• to be provided with information about how your personal data is processed
• to have your personal data corrected
• to have your personal data erased in certain circumstances
• to object to or restrict how your personal data is processed
• to have your personal data transferred to yourself or to another business in certain circumstances
• you have the right to be told if we have made a mistake whilst processing your data and we will self report breaches to the Commissioner.

How you can access, update or correct your information

The Data Protection Legislation allows you to find out what information is held about you, on paper and computer records. This is known as ‘right of subject access’ and applies to your Human Resources data along with all other personal records. 

If you wish to see a copy of your records you should contact the Data Protection Officer. You are entitled to receive a copy of our records free of charge, within a month.

In certain circumstances access to your records may be limited, for example, if the records you have asked for contain information relating to another person.

The accuracy of your information is important to us to be able to provide relevant services more quickly. We are working to make our record keeping more efficient. In the meantime, if you change your address or email address, or if any of your circumstances change or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date please email us or write to us at:

Human Resources
Publica Group Limited
Trinity Road, Cirencester, GL7 1PX
Email : human.resources@publicagroup.uk
Telephone: 01242 264355

Further information

If you would like to know more about how we use your information, or if for any reason you do not wish to have your information used in any of the ways described in this leaflet, please tell us. Contact the Data Protection Officer

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner: https://ico.org.uk