Devon County Council (DCC) is a member of the Safer Devon Partnership (SDP) which is the statutory County Strategy Group which provides the strategic leadership for addressing community safety matters across Devon – aiming to work together to enable the people of Devon to feel and be safe in their homes and communities. One of Safer Devon Partnership’s responsibilities is to provide (on behalf of the Community Safety Partnerships) the governance for Domestic Homicide reviews as they are required in the county. Officers within DCC provide the management and administration.

DCC is a Data Controller under Data Protection Legislation and our ICO registration number is Z6475582. This privacy notice concerns the processing of personal data that takes place by the SDP as part of a Domestic Homicide review.

This notice explains what information we collect, why we collect it and how we keep it secure. It also explains your rights and our legal obligation. Should you wish to find out more about Devon County Council’s data protection policies please contact our Data Protection Officer.

We will notify you of any changes to this privacy notice

This privacy notice was last updated 18/09/2019. If we use your personal data for any new purposes, updates will be made to the policy information and changes communicated, where necessary in accordance with current data protection legislation. Any queries relating to this privacy notice please contact the Data Protection Officer.

How we will use your personal data

DCC may need to collect personal data so that we can:

a) establish what lessons can be learned from the domestic homicide regarding the way in which local professionals and organisations work individually and together to safeguard victims

b) identify clearly what those lessons are both within and between agencies, how and within what timescales they will be acted on, and what is expected to change as a result

c) apply these lessons to service responses including changes to inform national and local policies and procedures as appropriate

d) prevent domestic violence and homicide and improve service responses for all domestic violence and abuse victims and their children by developing a co-ordinated multi-agency approach to ensure that domestic abuse is identified and responded to effectively at the earliest opportunity

e) contribute to a better understanding of the nature of domestic violence and abuse and

f) highlight good practice

Information that we collect from you will be obtained via face-to-face discussions and interviews, through email and telephone communications, via review of medical and social care records and via discussions with professionals who have been involved with the victims and their families. The council only uses IT systems for these purposes which are supplied under a contract and where the security has been assessed. For more details about the council’s security arrangements please visit https://www.devon.gov.uk/data-protection-and-security/.

What information do we collect

We may collect and store records about you which may include:

minutes from meetings and interviews
medical records
social care records
criminal record information supplied by crime prevention services such as the police or youth justice service
information from specialist providers (such as providers of domestic abuse services or provider of substance misuse services)

The legal basis for us collecting your personal data

Where we are processing personal data about you as part of a Domestic Homicide Review, we rely upon the following lawful conditions:

Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004
Article 6(1)(c) – processing that is necessary for DCC to fulfil a statutory obligation
Article 6(1)(e) – processing for the purposes of delivering a public task carried out in the public interest
Article 9(2)(b) – processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or of the data subject in the field of employment and social security and social protection law

When the decision to initiate a Domestic Homicide review is taken an Independent Chair is appointed and a multi-agency Review Panel is convened. The review panel is made up of representatives from a range of organisations who are best placed to contribute to the review and take forward any recommendations that come out of the process. We will securely share information relevant to the review with those organisations participating in the review process. This may include organisations such as:

Royal Devon and Exeter Healthcare Trust
Devon Doctors
Devon and Cornwall Police
Devon County Council
Devon Clinical Commissioning Group
Devon Partnership Trust

Please rest assured that we restrict the amount of personal data that is shared to the minimum necessary and only share information that is relevant to the review.

We may also share information to enable us to comply with court orders and other legal obligations. If this is necessary, we will only share the minimum amount of personal data needed for this purpose.

If we feel that it is necessary to share your personal data with professionals to ensure you or someone you work with is safeguarded from harm, we rely upon the provisions of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 and Children Act 1989 and 2004. Where it is necessary to share medical or social care information for these purposes, we rely upon article 9(2)(h) of the General Data Protection Regulation (information necessary for medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems).

How long will we hold personal data?

We will retain personal data for only as long as is necessary, and in line with our organisation’s record retention schedules.

Your data protection rights

Under Data Protection Legislation, you have the right to obtain a copy of the personal records held by us, this is called a Subject Access Request (SAR). Details of how to make a request can be found here.

Further details on your rights under data protection legislation and how to exercise them, are available here.

International transfers

The SDP do not intend to transfer personal data to countries outside of the territorial scope of UK data protection laws as part of a Domestic Homicide review.

Complaints

If you have any comments, queries or complaints about this privacy notice or the processing of your personal data please contact our Data Protection Officer.

Alternatively, if you are not happy with the way that DCC is handling your personal data, you are entitled to appeal to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO). The Information Commissioners Office enforces and oversees the Data Protection Regulations.

Contact details are below:

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

Email: casework@ico.org.uk

Automated decisions

No automated decisions are made using the personal data submitted to us for the purposes of Domestic Homicide reviews.