Who we are and what we do

We are “Publica” Group Limited 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) (hereon known as “Clients”).

Publica’s ICT Service provides a range of information technology and communication services to the partner councils and external clients.

Publica is a data controller and data processor under the Data Protection Legislation; we will only collect and process personal information about you in order to provide these services, and to meet our statutory and regulatory obligations.

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 Limited  
Trinity Road, Cirencester¸ GL7 1PX
Email: data.protection@publicagroup.uk
Tel: 01993 861194

Why we need your information and how we use it

The Council has a lawful basis for collecting and processing personal information about you for the purpose of ICT Services.

We collect information about you via your correspondence with us and your visits to our websites. We collect your personal data in order to enable us to:

• To respond to customer queries
• To manage staff IT accounts
• Analyse web statistics
• Improve our online services
• For the prevention and detection of crime or fraud

What type of information is collected from you

Publica’s ICT Service may collect and process the following types of personal data in order to provide the services:

• personal, for example: name, address, telephone, date of birth
• email addresses
• Social media accounts
• Details of the type of computer or mobile phone, web browser or operating system used
• Location (based on IP address)
• Web pages viewed and search terms used on our websites

We will only ask for personal information that is appropriate to enable us to deliver our services. In some cases, you can refuse to provide your details if you deem a request to be inappropriate. However, you should note that this may impact on our ability to provide some services to you.

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

The Service may share or disclose your information to any of the following recipients as may be necessary for the administration of the Service in line with statutory obligations and/or to comply with contractual obligations relating to it:

• Other Council Departments or Services to assist with enquiries and to share feedback
• Other Councils such as the relevant County Councils
• Third party organisations and Software as a Service providers such as Google
• Service providers, professional advisers and auditors who in certain circumstances will also be “data controllers”
• Regulators, the government, local and foreign law enforcement authorities
• Local and foreign courts, tribunals and arbitrators, other judicial committees of enactments of laws

How long we keep your information (retention period)

We will keep your personal data in accordance with our retention schedule, unless you explicitly request it to be removed under GDPR information rights. This right to have your data removed is not an absolute right, for example, we will need to retain your data if this information forms part of a legal requirement, public registry or an existing contract. 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
• 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 law gives you the right to apply for a copy of information about yourself. This is called a ‘Subject Access Request'.

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 your records free of charge, within a month.

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:

Publica Group Limited
Cotswold District Council
Trinity Road, Cirencester¸ GL7 1PX
Email: data.protection@publicagroup.uk
Tel: 01993 861194