Bereavement Services

The following information provides details on how we may collect use and where appropriate share personal information in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR). It should be read in conjunction with the Council’s privacy notice document.
 

Why we collect personal data

We collect, or obtain your personal information for the following purpose(s):

• Cremation services and memorialisation. 
• Burial services including purchase of Rights of Burial
• Application for memorials.

We only use these details to provide the service requested or for other closely related services such as the provision of discretionary memorial information available within the service which may be of interest to you.

What personal data we collect

The personal data we collect will include:

• name
• address
• email address
• telephone number
• any additional personal information that is necessary for us to provide you with the service that you require

We may monitor and record electronic communications (website, email and phone conversations) for a number of reasons such as:

• staff training
• records of conversations
• the detection, investigation and prevention of crime

We will inform you if your call is being recorded or monitored. 

Emails that we send to you or you send to us, may be retained as a record of contact and your email address stored for future use in accordance with our retention periods. If we need to email sensitive or confidential information to you, we may perform checks to verify the correct email address and may take additional security measures.

See our Data Protection Policy for details on how we define personal and non-personal data.

How we use your personal data

We'll only use your personal data in accordance with data protection legislation, and for the purposes stated in this privacy notice.

We'll:

• only ask for what is necessary
• protect it and make sure nobody has access to it who shouldn’t
• ensure you know if you have a choice about giving us personal data
• only share your personal data with other Scarborough Borough Council departments or with external partners, agencies and contractors involved in delivering services on our behalf
• make sure we don’t keep it for longer than is necessary
• delete or destroy it securely when we no longer have a need to keep it

We ask that you:

• give us accurate information
• tell us as soon as possible of any changes
• tell us as soon as possible if you notice mistakes in the information we hold about you

From time to time, we may conduct or ask you to take part in a survey to get your feedback, comments and opinions to help us improve our services. We will only do this where we have your explicit consent to contact you for this purpose.

Who we share your personal data with

We will share your personal information with third parties where required by law or where it is necessary to perform the contract.

Your personal information may be shared with and processed by:

• Funeral directors
• Solicitors
• Memorial masons

Data will only be shared with others where it is to enable a requested or statutory service to be provided. This could be where we collaborate with other agencies, for example Funeral Directors to open a grave for a burial to take place.

We do not disclose or share sensitive or confidential information without your explicit consent except where disclosure is required by law, or where we have good reason to believe that failing to do so, would put you or someone else at risk.

We may be required or permitted, under data protection legislation, to disclose your personal data without your explicit consent, for example if we have a legal obligation to do so, such as for:

• law enforcement
• fraud investigations
• regulation and licensing
• criminal prosecutions
• court proceedings

We must protect public funds and may use personal data and data-matching techniques to detect and prevent fraud, collect taxes and ensure public money is targeted and spent in the most appropriate and cost-effective way. To do this, your personal data may be shared with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds, including the Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs, the Police and other local authorities.

Our legal basis for collecting and sharing personal data

We process personal information to comply our Legal obligations; this includes public health funerals, in line with Section 46 of the Public Health Act 1984. We also process personal information to deliver services under contract with persons in respect of funerals, burials, cremations and memorials.

• Burial Act 1857
• The Registration of Burials Act 1864
• The Cremation Act 1902, the Cremation Act 1952
• The Cremation (England & Wales) Regulations 2008
• The Local Authorities Cemeteries Order 1977
• The Public Health (Control of Diseases) Act 1984

We also process personal information to comply with contractual obligations in providing services for memorials and other services you require.

How long we keep your personal data

A cremation authority must keep the application for cremation and any other certificates or documents relating to a cremation, or an electronic copy of the documents, for a period of 15 years from the date of cremation. Where electronic copies of application forms and documents are kept, the originals must be kept for two years.

The Register of Cremations is kept in perpetuity.

Burial records

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements.  We will keep your personal data in line with our retention schedule.  We will delete or destroy your personal data securely.

At the end of the retention period, we may pass any relevant information to the Archives where it is required or appropriate to do so.

Further processing of personal data

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Privacy Notice, then we'll provide you with a new notice.

The new notice will:

• explain this new use before we start the processing
• set out the relevant purposes and processing conditions

Where and whenever necessary, we'll seek your consent to the new processing, if we start to use your personal data for a purpose not mentioned in this Privacy Notice.

See our Data Protection Policy for details about the further processing of personal data.

Personal data from online payments

The personal data you give to us when using our online payment system will only be used for the recording of your payment. We'll ensure that it is used for no other purpose and is not disclosed to a third party such as other companies or individuals, unless required to do so by law for the prevention of crime and the detection of fraud.

We'll hold it securely and only for as long as is needed. It will then be deleted in line with our Retention and Disposal Policy and Procedures.

See our Data Protection Policy for details on how we process your personal data in connection with online payments.

Your rights relating to your personal data

When we collect your personal data we'll tell you how we are going to use it. Where we process your personal data, you have a number of rights under data protection law.

Find information about your rights on our UK GDPR page.

Further information

If you have any questions, want to exercise your rights, or if you have a complaint about how your information has been used, please contact us at dataprotection@scarborough.gov.uk or on 01723 232323 or write to:

Data Protection Officer
Scarborough Borough Council
Town Hall
St Nicholas Street
Scarborough
North Yorkshire
YO11 2HG