Coronavirus (COVID-19) contact tracing

Who we are?

Derby City Council is the local government unitary authority for Derby City. Our address is The Council House, Corporation Street, Derby, DE1 2FS. You can contact our Data Protection Officer on 01332 640763 or by email at data.protection@derby.gov.uk.

How do we collect information from you?

We collect information from you when you visit www.derby.gov.uk; also when you contact us in writing, speak to us on the phone, by email or any other type of electronic communication, or talk to us face to face.

Contact tracing is important to help us to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and is an established way for public health to control the spread of infectious diseases. It works by identifying contacts of people who have tested positive and by encouraging them to self-isolate and closely monitor their health, rather than continuing to mix with others and passing the virus on.

The contact tracers will get in touch by:

• Telephone call
• Sending you text messages
• Email
• Visiting your home if we haven't been able to get in touch with you.

We may use contact details held in Council systems to ensure that we are able to contact you, and to ensure that we are working from accurate and up to date information. Such information will be accessed and processed where it is necessary to comply with our legal obligations and public tasks arising from the Coronavirus Act 2020, the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010 and the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984, the Care Act 2014 and associated Regulations.

What types of information do we collect from you?

We collect different categories of information about you, depending on the service you want from us and/or the reason why we need to process information relating to you. This could be personal information (for example your name and address), or other more sensitive data that we would only collect and use in very particular circumstances that are set out in law.

We may ask you to provide or confirm your demographic information, information about your coronavirus symptoms, places you have visited, recent travel history, occupation, and details of the people you have been in close contact with.

Details of information obtained from third parties?

We receive information from Public Health England (PHE) and the National Track & Trace (NTT) service. We may also receive information from the Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC) and the NHS.

PHEs have published guidance on their COVID-19 privacy information. 

What is the lawful basis?

The legal basis for data processing we are relying on comes from Article 6 of the UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR). The following sections apply;

• Article 6(1)(c) Legal Obligation -Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject;
• Article 6(1)(d) Vital interest -the processing is necessary to protect someone’s life;
• Article 6(1)(e) Public task -the processing is necessary for you to perform a task in the public interest or for your official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law.

Special category data:

• It is necessary to share sensitive information for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights in the field of social protection law, for the provision of health or social care treatment or the management of health or social care systems. (Article 9 2(h) UK GDPR).
• Public health processing-it is necessary for reasons of public interest in the area of public health (Article 9 2 (i) UK GDPR)

We process all information in accordance with our legal obligations and public tasks arising from the following provisions:

• The Coronavirus Act 2020
• The Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010
• The Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 and associated Regulations
• The Care Act 2014
• The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006
• Health and Safety at Work Act 1974

How is your information used?

We may use your information to identify COVID-19 cases, trace contacts, manage outbreaks and understand the epidemiology of coronavirus. This may include:

• informing PHE, DHSC and NHS partners about contact made with you
• contacting people in specified Derby postcode areas who have tested positive for COVID-19 but have been non-contactable by the National Track and Trace (NTT) service. This contact may be made via text message, phone call, email
• conducting face to face visits to known home addresses in the event that you cannot be contacted by phone or email
• gathering intelligence and contact details for people they have been in contact with.
• updating the CTAS system (the national database) with contact tracing outcomes.
• preventing, controlling and containing local instances and clusters of COVID-19 infection and reduce the prevalence of covid-19 infections.
• enabling the LA to develop targeted interventions and responses.
• providing advice and guidance to Derby city residents who have tested positive.
• using local data and community knowledge to develop a targeted approach to outbreaks and clusters.

COVID-19/Coronavirus

Coronavirus has been added as a notifiable disease under the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010. Under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 and associated Regulations;  and the Coronavirus Act 2020 and associated Regulations  the Council has a legal duty to store, process and share personal information. The information will  be stored, processed and shared as part of the national, and local Coronavirus Test and Trace operations where necessary for investigations, as well as the testing and  tracing of individuals, groups or businesses; and to assist in the investigation into cases of Coronavirus; Coronavirus outbreaks and issues of non-compliance with the Acts and associated Regulations. The information will also be used; interrogated and mapped to inform the Councils actions and decision making processes. Any such storage, processing or sharing of information will be done in the public interest in order to promote health and wellbeing.

During the investigation of cases and/or outbreaks of Coronavirus, information which is gathered may be shared between departments within Derby City Council; with other Councils associated with an outbreak; other health services or with other government bodies associated with the control of the Coronavirus.  The Council has a duty to notify national Government bodies, such as Public Health England, and the relevant local authority where an individual resides (if different), where there are suspected Coronavirus cases. The Council will disclose the information under Article 9(2)(j) of the UK GDPR (processing is necessary for reasons of public interest in the area of public health, such as protecting against serious cross-border threats to health), and confidential information may be lawfully disclosed in the public interest, without consent, where the benefits to an individual or to society outweigh both the individual’s and the public interest in maintaining the confidentiality of such data.

The Council may contact staff, service users, residents, patients, businesses and premises with messages relating to Coronavirus by text, phone, letter or e-mail. This contact is not direct marketing; therefore we do not need your Consent before contacting you. There is more information available on the national Information Commissioners Office approach to the current epidemic here: https://ico.org.uk/

Research and statistics

Anonymised and pseudonymised data may be used for research and statistical purposes and to understand the local epidemiology of coronavirus. Any data collected may be used for research and statistical purposes that are relevant and compatible with the purpose that the data was collected for.

Who has access to your information?

We may share your information with the following third parties:

• Public Health England (PHE)
• the National Track & Trace (NTT) service
• the Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC)
• the NHS
• Community Action Derby
• Health and Social
• Volunteers and Voluntary organisations acting on behalf of the Council
• Health and social care providers
• other statutory agencies where sharing is required by law
• third party system providers

We may also share your information with departments internally.

We will share your information accordance with the usage and legal basis outlined above.

We will not sell or rent your information to third parties. We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

What are your rights in relation the personal data we process?

• Access – you can request copies of any of your personal information that is held by the Council.
• Rectification – you can ask us to correct any incorrect information.
• Deletion – you can ask us to delete your personal information. The Council can refuse to delete information if we have a lawful reason to keep this.
• Portability – you can ask us to transfer your personal data to different services or to you.
• Right to object or restrict processing – you have the right to object to how your data is being used and how it is going to be used in the future.
• Right to prevent automatic decisions – you have the right to challenge a decision that affects you that has been made automatically without human intervention, for example an online form with an instant decision.

National Data Opt Out

We are one of many organisations working within health and social care to improve health and wellbeing for patients as well as the public. Information collected from you when you use our services may be stored and shared with services or partner organisations for purposes other than your individual care, for instance to help with:

• Improving the quality and standards of care provided
• Research into the development of new treatments
• Preventing illness and diseases
• Monitoring safety

This may only take place when there is a clear legal basis to use this information. Confidential information about your health and care will only be used in limited circumstances where it is not possible to use anonymised data.

You have a choice about whether you want your confidential information to be used in this way. If you are happy for your information to be used in this way you do not need to do anything. If you do choose to opt out your confidential patient information will still be used to support your individual care.

For more information or to register your choice to opt out please visit the NHS website. You can choose to opt in at any time.

Please be aware that the National Data Opt Out does not apply to information used for marketing purposes, your data would only be used in this way with your specific agreement.

All Health and Social Care organisations should have systems and process in place so they can be compliant with the national data opt-out and apply your choice to any confidential patient information they use or share for purposes beyond your individual care.

Our organisation is compliant with the national opt out policy.

How long will we keep your information for?

We keep and dispose of all records in line with our record retention schedule. We will comply with Data Protection legislation.

We will only keep your personal data for as long as we need it to help control and prevent the spread of coronavirus.

What security precautions are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of your information?

We are strongly committed to data security and will take reasonable and appropriate steps to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or corruption. We have put in place physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard the information you provide to us. However, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us. We recommend that you take every precaution to protect your personal information.

Keeping your data up to date

We want to ensure any information we hold is accurate. You can help us by promptly informing us of any changes to the information we hold about you.

Under 13

If you are accessing online services and are under the age of 13‚ please get your parent/guardian's permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal information.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files which identify your computer to our servers. They are used to improve the user experience. View what cookies we use and how you can manage them.

IP addresses

Internet Protocol (IP) addresses are collected when our site is used:

• for statistical/analytic purposes
• to identify any malicious activity

Complaints

If you would like to make a complaint regarding the use of your personal data you can contact our Data Protection Officer;

• By post: Information Governance, The Council House, Corporation Street, Derby, DE1 2FS
• By phone: 01332 640763
• By email: data.protection@derby.gov.uk

For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing issues, you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO):

• By post: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
• By phone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number

Alternatively, visit ico.org.uk or email casework@ico.org.uk.