At Brighton and Hove 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.

This privacy notice explains how we use your information and what your rights are. We handle and store your personal information in line with data protection law and our confidentiality policy. The following will tell you more about how we use your information in more detail.

Our network

Citizens Advice is a membership organisation made up of the national Citizens Advice charity and many local offices across England and Wales. Brighton and Hove Citizens Advice is an independent charity and a member of the national Citizens Advice charity.

All members of the Citizens Advice network are responsible for keeping your personal information safe and making sure data protection law is followed. 

Members of the network also run some jointly designed services and use some of the same systems to process your personal data. In these instances, we are joint data controllers for these activities.

Jointly controlled data

All offices in the Citizens Advice network use some joint systems to carry out our activities. These include joint case management systems, telephony platforms and more. 

Staff from a different local Citizens Advice can only access your personal information in a joint system if they have a good reason. For example when:

• you go to a different office to seek advice
• more than one office is working together in partnership
• they need to investigate a complaint or incident

We have rules and controls in place to stop people from accessing or using your information when they shouldn’t.

Tell an adviser if you’re worried about your details being on a national system. We’ll work with you to take extra steps to protect your information – for example by recording your problem without using your name.

National Citizens Advice has a privacy notice available on their website that covers general advice and nationally managed systems, including our case management systems. 

Our partnerships

We work in partnership with with the following organisations: Aging Well, Brighton Macmillan Cancer Information & Support Service, Brighton & Hove Services Co-op (BHESCo) and The Advice & Financial Inclusion Partnership (which includes Wave Community Bank, Brighton Unemployed Centre Families Project, Hangleton & Knoll Project, St Luke’s Advice Service, Brighton Housing Trust, YMCA, Money Advice Plus and Possibility People).                  With all our partnerships we get the clients permission to refer in and out of all our services.

Your data protection rights

You have rights in relation to the personal data that we hold about you. Your rights include being able to request:

• Access to copies of your data
• Corrections are made to inaccurate data
• Deletion of your personal data
• Object to how we use your personal data

These rights are not absolute and may not apply in every circumstance. For more information about your rights, you can visit the ICO website.

To make a data protection rights request at Citizens Advice Brighton and Hove, you can do so by emailing complaints@cabrightonhove.org. 

Raising a concern about how we use your information

If you are concerned about how we have handled your personal information please contact us at complaints@cabrightonhove.org. 

You can also contact the national charity if you are unhappy with how we have used your personal data or wish to raise a concern about how a local office has handled your personal data. To do so you can email us at DPO@citizensadvice.org.uk

Contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

You can also raise your concern with the Information Commissioner’s Office which regulates data protection law in the UK. if you are unhappy with how we have used your personal information. They will normally expect you to have made a complaint to us directly in the first instance.

• Visit the ICO website.
• Address: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
• Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

How we use your data for advice

This section covers how our local office uses your data to provide you with advice. For general advice and nationally funded advice programmes please see the national Citizens Advice privacy notice.

Our confidentiality policy

At Citizens Advice Brighton and Hove we have a confidentiality policy which states that anything you tell us as part of advice will not be shared outside of the Citizens Advice network unless you provide your permission for us to do so.

There are some exceptions to this such as needing to share:

• to prevent an immediate risk of harm to an individual
• in select circumstances if it is in the best interests of the client
• where we are compelled to do so by law (e.g. a court order or meeting statutory disclosures)
• where there is an overriding public interest such as to prevent harm against someone or to investigate a crime
• to defend against a complaint or legal claim
• to protect our name and reputation for example to provide our side of a story reported in the press

Our lawful basis for using your information

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. Citizens Advice Brighton & Hove relies on National Citizens Advice privacy notice for the both nationally and locally managed services. 

How we use your data for research, feedback and statistics

This section covers how we use your data to carry out our research, feedback and statistical work. National Citizens Advice covers their use of data for this purpose in their privacy notice.

How we use your data for fundraising and donations

This section covers how we use your data to carry out our fundraising activities.

National Citizens Advice covers their use of data for fundraising in their privacy notice.

How we use your data when applying to work or volunteer

When you apply, we collect your personal information through your application form, interview or references so we can process your application. The information we are provided with will be used to help us in our recruitment process. Depending on the role we may also collect information through a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. You will be informed if such a check will be required for the role at application stage.

What information we collect

We collect the following information: 

• Your name and contact details.
• Work and education history.
• Suitable references.
• In the application stage, we ask candidates to complete an optional Recruitment Equalities Survey containing questions on applicants’ gender, age, ethnic origin, disability, religion and sexual orientation. These questions are optional and we use this data to understand if we’re reaching everyone with our advertisements.
• If a conditional offer is provided, we will ask about unspent criminal convictions.  
• If you have given us any information about your health, disability or access requirements, under data protection law we need your permission to hold or use that information.  We will only use it to allow us to make reasonable adjustments and/or to keep you safe, and it will be held securely.
• If you are recruited we will retain your contact information to involve and support you. We will also collect additional information, such as next of kin details, and overtime records of training, support meetings and where relevant, appraisals.
• If you are recruited, we will also require evidence of your right to work in the UK.
• If you are recruited, we will also require next of kin information which will only be used in the case of an emergency.

Where it’s needed for the role, we might contact the DBS for a criminal record check. Once the DBS check is completed and you’ve received your certificate, we’d expect you to share this information with us as part of the background check process.

What we use your information for

At Citizens Advice Brighton and Hove all use of volunteer and staff information will be relevant to their involvement and may include:

• Contacting volunteers and staff when necessary
• Arrange an interview
• Do checks when we make an offer, for example contacting your references or checking your right to work in the UK
• Make changes to role, support or equipment to improve accessibility
• Monitoring statistical details of our volunteers and staff
• Providing ongoing support to volunteers and staff
• Monitoring the quality of advice given to clients
• Addressing problems or complaints

Citizens Advice Brighton and Hove is the data controller for your personal data.   Some personal data is shared with National Citizens Advice for the following purposes:

• Allow you to use national systems
• Provide support and handle enquiries
• Facilitate quality checks
• Assist in handling complaints and grievances
• Collecting expressions of interest for recruiting volunteers

National Citizens Advice covers their use of data for this purpose in their privacy notice.

Our lawful basis for using your information

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 need to use your personal information to recruit people and make sure our recruitment processes are inclusive.

How we use your data when using our website

This section covers how we use your data when using our website.

National Citizens Advice covers their use of data for this purpose in their privacy notice.

How long we keep your data for

Citizens Advice Brighton & Hove are data controllers in common with Citizens Advice in relation to client records stored on some Citizens Advice CRM systems eg Casebook.  In these cases, Citizens Advice Brighton & Hove should follow the data retention schedule below.

Third party processors

Third party processors are other organisations that carry out data processing on our behalf. Third party processors don’t use data for their own purposes and we have agreements in line with data protection law. At Citizens Advice Brighton and Hove we use PWC research to evaluate the quality of our advice by contacting some clients who have given permission to give feedback about our services. National Citizens Advice covers their use of data for this purpose in their privacy notice.

Updates to this policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review to ensure it remains accurate and up to date.

The policy was last reviewed on 4 March 2025 to reflect changes to our lawful basis for processing data for advice purposes as well as improving the format of the policy.