Where did you get my personal data?

Unless you gave it to us in the past, we got your personal data, including your home address, from the Electoral Register.  

What access does the Labour Party have to the Electoral Register? 

Political parties have access to the full electoral register and also to what’s known as the ‘marked register’. The ‘marked register’ identifies contact details for individuals who have voted in previous elections, but importantly, not how they voted.  This access is for ‘democratic engagement’ activities and is written into law under the ‘Representation of the People Regulations 2001’. 

When did I consent to this use of my data? 

Under the law, consent is not required for the Labour Party to use  your personal data from  ‘the ‘Marked Register’ of the Electoral Register.You are not able to opt-out from the Marked Register,  unlike the ‘Open Register’ version of the Electoral Register which permits opt out.’. The Information Commissioner’s Office has a good explainer about this if you’d like to understand  more : Use of the electoral register | ICO  

Where access to your data on the Electoral Register is governed by a law for political parties, the use of your data found on the Electoral Register by a political party is governed under the term “democratic engagement” activities as specified within Section 8(86) of the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA18).  

The lawful basis under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for a DPA18 ‘democratic engagement’ activity is a ‘task in the public interest’ otherwise known as ‘public task’. This also means political parties are not required to gather your consent for those uses of your personal data. 

‘Democratic engagement’ includes using your personal data to send you campaign materials in the post addressed directly to you and conduct a political campaign where we may knock on your front door at your home or registered location to speak with you, where we might: 

• Ask you for voting preference score (who you are most likely to vote for in an election on a scale of 1-10); 

• Ask if you if there are any local or national topics of interest to you; 

• Ask you whether you would like direct contact with a local Labour MP or councillor (and take further details with your permission if you do); 

• Where you are showing specific interest in Labour, ask if you might like to join Labour as a member, and provide you with the means to do so; and 

• Where you are communicating specific interest in making any sort of financial contribution to Labour to help our cause, take some details and also gain your consent, so we can send information either electronically or in the post asking for donations or whether you would like to take part in things like the Labour Lottery and/or our raffle (you can opt out of this consent at any time). 

I’ve had communications with the Labour Party before but how can I stop you continuing to use my data? 

If you have interacted with the Labour Party before as a supporter and provided us with your email address at any time and no longer want to receive emails from us, it will often be much quicker for you to click ‘unsubscribe’ rather than submit a data subject rights request. 

As a Labour Party member do I need to consent to party communications? 

Consent is not required for communications with you when you are a Labour Party member  

If you are a Labour Party member and unless you have used an ‘unsubscribe’ button or notified us of specific contact preference in Labour Hub, we do not need to gain your consent to communicate anything to you. All members are given the opportunity to decide contact preferences when  becoming a Labour member.A  As a member of the Labour Party, you can login to Labour Hub  and change or set you can set your communication preferences.. 

I’ve submitted a GDPR request, why do I have to submit ID? 

In this age of digital communications, not everyone using an email is who they say they are.  We want to be sure we are communicating with the right person. 

We have experienced people impersonating other people from their own email addresses. Sometimes, this is very convincing. It is perfectly legal for the Labour Party to verify who it is communicating with.  

You don’t have a photo of me to prove it is me, why do I need to share a passport or driver’s license?

When we ask you to verify who you are we split  the digital from the physical. It is unlikely someone impersonating you through your own email address will have the physical documents we ask from you. 

I don’t have a passport or driver’s license, what then?

Where you are not comfortable sharing photo ID we are able to accept an image of a utility bill or council tax bill which displays your name and address (unfortunately we do not accept internet or mobile phone bills   as forms of identification). 

Where do I submit a request? 

To understand how we use your personal data and submit your GDPR request  you can visit the privacy pages on our website which can be found by clicking here.