Privacy and Cookies

Data protection

Bexley Citizens Advice complies with the Data Protection Act 2018 (the “Act“). For the purposes of the Act, Bexley Citizens Advice is the Data Controller.

Bexley Citizens Advice is committed to safeguarding your privacy, while providing a high quality of service. Bexley Citizens Advice will treat your personal information as confidential and your details will not be given or sold to anyone. We will use the information collected online to help us understand more about how our site is used by visitors, and to develop and enhance our services to you.

Bexley Citizens Advice

Privacy Policy

At Citizens Advice 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.

We only ask for the information we need. We always let you decide what you’re comfortable telling us, explain why we need it and treat it as confidential.

When we record and use your personal information we:

• only access it when we have a good reason
• only share what is necessary and relevant
• don’t sell it to anyone.

We collect and use the details you give us so we can help you. We have a ‘legitimate interest’ to do this under data protection law. This means it lets us carry out our aims and goals as an organisation. We’ll always explain how we use your information.

At times we might use or share your information without your permission. If we do, we’ll always make sure there’s a legal basis for it. This could include situations where we have to use or share your information:

• to comply with the law – for example, if a court orders us to share information. This is called ‘legal obligation’
• to protect someone’s life – for example, sharing information with a paramedic if a client was unwell at our office. This is called ‘vital interests’
• to carry out our legitimate aims and goals as a charity – for example, to create statistics for our national research. This is called ‘legitimate interests’
• for us to carry out a task where we’re meeting the aims of a public body in the public interest – for example, delivering a government or local authority service. This is called ‘public task’
• to carry out a contract we have with you – for example, if you’re an employee we might need to store your bank details so we can pay you. This is called ‘contract’
• to defend our legal rights – for example, sharing information with our legal advisors if there was a complaint that we gave the wrong advice.

We handle and store your personal information in line with the law – including the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.

You can check our main Citizens Advice policy for how we handle most of your personal information. 

This page covers how we, as your local charity, handle your information locally in our offices.

How Citizens Advice Bexley collect your data

We get your data when you sign the revised client permission and consent form which was released in May 2018 and updated in 2020. Or when you give consent over the phone, we record your consent.

What Citizens Advice Bexley ask for

To find out what information we ask for, see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy.

How Citizens Advice Bexley use your information

To find out how we use your information, see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy.

Working on your behalf

When you give us authority to act on your behalf, for example to help you with a Universal Credit claim, we’ll need to share information with that third party.

How Citizens Advice Bexley store your information 

All information is stored on Casebook – A data base which is administered by Citizens Advice nationally.

How Citizens Advice Bexley share your information

We will only share your information with others with your explicit consent.

Contact Citizens Advice Bexley about your information

If you have any questions about how your information is collected or used, you can contact our office.

Telephone: 08082 505 709, open Monday to Friday 9:30am - 3:30pm

Email: admin@bexleycab.org.uk

You can contact us to: 

• find out what personal information we hold about you
• correct your information if it’s wrong, out of date or incomplete
• request we delete your information
• ask us to limit what we do with your data – for example, ask us not to share it if you haven’t asked us already 
• ask us to give you a copy of the data we hold in a format you can use to transfer it to another service
• ask us stop using your information.

Who’s responsible for looking after your personal information

The national Citizens Advice charity and your 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. 

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. 

You can find out more about your data rights on the Information Commissioner’s website.