Privacy and the Asylum and Migration Service: Afghan Resettlement Programme

This Privacy Notice explains how the Asylum and Migration service - The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Programme (ARAP and ACRS) at Buckinghamshire Council (the data controller) will use the personal information we collect about you.

We can hold the following information on you:

• your names
• your contact details, including address, phone number and emails
• contact we have had with you e.g. reports of phone calls, messages, meetings
• your family members, names, and ages of children

If we apply for a Heart of Bucks funding grant on your behalf, we may hold the following additional information:

• income and expenditure analysis
• bank details which will be passed to Heart of Bucks to make the grant payment

We need your information to:

• support you as Afghan refugee families in your lives in the UK including, but not limited to:
  • making accommodation arrangements
  • applying for benefits
  • seeking employment
  • education
  • learning English
  • registering for health services
• ensure that our data is accurate for monitoring and reporting to central Government and for liaison with other local authorities, where necessary

The lawful basis for processing the personal information under the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR is:

• Article 6(1)(e) we need it to perform a public task
• Article 6(1)(a) your consent

We may also process special categories of personal data. For example information about health. Where we do so our lawful basis is

• Article 9(2)(g) substantial public interest

We may share your information with others including, but not limited to:

• relevant Council services including council tax and housing
• partner organisations and providers of commissioned services
• the Home Office and the South East Strategic Partnership for Migration
• bodies in connection with the prevention of crime, criminal or legal investigations or proceedings including fraud (and the National Fraud Initiative) or regulatory functions (such as the Local Government Ombudsman)

We will not usually share sensitive or confidential information without your consent unless disclosure is allowed by law such as when we have good reason to believe that failing to do so would put you or someone else at risk.

Where applicable, you can remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting [email protected].

We will securely hold your information and only keep it for as long as is necessary. Where information is no longer needed it will be confidentially disposed of.

We do not carry out any automated decision making in relation to this information.

You have legal rights over your information. For details of those rights, see our corporate Privacy Policy. Your rights will differ depending on our lawful basis for processing your personal information.

Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted at:

Buckinghamshire Council,
The Gateway,
Gatehouse Road,
Aylesbury,
HP19 8FF

You can also contact our Data Protection Office by email at [email protected] or by phone at 0300 131 6000.

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to the Data Protection Officer. You can also then complain to the ICO if you remain unhappy with how we have used your personal information.

Date of publication/last update: February 2024