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 commercial organisations

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 General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.

You can check our main Citizens Advice privacy 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 Bradford and Airedale and Bradford Law Centre collect your data

We get your permission to collect your information in the following ways:

Face to face contact – we ask you to fill in and sign a client permission and consent form along with a client profile form when you attend an advice session.
Telephone Advice – we will verbally ask you for your permission on the phone call and will record this in our case management system
Webchat – we will ask you to tick a box online to give us permission to collect your data

We use 'Legitimate Interest' and 'Consent' as our legal basis to collect your data.

What Citizens Advice Bradford and Airedale and Bradford Law Centre ask for

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

How Citizens Advice Bradford and Airedale and Bradford Law Centre 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.

For example Bradford Metropolitan District Council in relation to a Universal Credit Claim or Council Tax issue or your creditors in relation to a debt issue.

How Citizens Advice Bradford and Airedale and Bradford Law Centre store your 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.

In addition Citizens Advice Bradford & Airedale and Bradford Law Centre use G Suite office software and your personal data may be stored there while your case is active. Our policy is to minimise all data collected and we aim to transfer all personal information to casebook during the course of your case. For more information read about G Suite and GDPR.

For Legal Aid Agency cases we also use a Case Management System called CASEtrack to manage the billing of cases.

We use an appointment booking system called Quantus which includes a SMS message platform to send appointment reminders. When using the Quantus system our policy is to minimise all data collected and we aim to transfer all personal information to casebook during the course of your case. We always ensure we have your consent before contacting you via Text.

How Citizens Advice Bradford and Airedale and Bradford Law Centre share your information

We share information with the following organisations:

Legal Aid Agency – If your case is funded by them
Money Advice Service – if your case is funded by them
Bradford Metropolitan District Council – we share anonymous data in relation to client numbers, client profiles and the location of service delivery as part of our funding agreement

If you ask us to refer you to another agency we will share your details with them if you give us your express permission by signing a referral form.

Contact Citizens Advice Bradford and Airedale and Bradford Law Centre about your information

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

Citizens Advice Bradford and Airedale and Bradford Law Centre
31 Manor Row
Bradford
BD1 4PS
Tel: 01274 758030
Email: admin@bradfordcab.com

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

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.