About us
Ealing Council has a statutory duty to ensure that is has due regard to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism, in all forms.
Nationally, all local authorities are expected to ensure that individuals susceptible to radicalisation are supported away from being drawn into terrorism. The mechanism for this is known as Channel, which is a safeguarding panel led by Ealing Council and supported by key partners to consider appropriate interventions for any person identified at risk of radicalisation harms.
Channel is a confidential and voluntary process in which multi-agency safeguarding professionals can meet to discuss the most appropriate options in supporting individuals on a case-by-case basis. This may include mental health support, drug and alcohol support, accommodation support and education and vocational support. Additionally, Channel can provide ideological support for members of the community struggling with interpretations of their faith through approved interpretation experts. Individuals offered support within the Channel process must provide consent to receive Channel intervention.
Email: prevent@ealing.gov.uk
What kind of information do you collect about me?
We currently collect and process the following information:
If you are offered support through Channel, the team operating at Ealing will collect and process personal information about you. Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation, we have certain responsibilities as a controller and processor of your personal data, and you have certain rights as a data subject. This notice is to inform you of your rights and our responsibilities.
What personal information and special category data about you we collect and process:
- name
- address
- date of birth
- gender
- ethnicity
- language
- nationality
- phone numbers and email addresses
- police information
- criminal history
- council tax and benefit information (if relevant)
- medical information (if relevant)
- religious beliefs (if relevant)
- political beliefs (if relevant)
- information about engagement with social care or charity services (if relevant)
- details of family members and associates (if relevant).
- health and special needs
- lifestyle, family details and social circumstances
- financial details
- employment and education details
- housing needs
You can find more about what constitutes personal information on the ICO website.
How we get the personal information and why do we have it?
The community resilience team needs to collect some personal information to provide tailored support to those individuals identified as being potentially susceptible to radicalisation. Your data will be used to discuss the given circumstances and concerns with relevant services and make recommendations for support. Information sharing supports the appropriate processing of Channel referrals, to ensure the right interventions are in place and provide holistic support.
We collect information about you through information sharing with other services. We might also collect information from you directly, such as contact details (telephone, email addresses etc).
Your data will only be shared with relevant professionals and agencies as part of the Channel process such as Metropolitan Police Service’s Counter Terrorism Command (SO15), Local Authorities Children’s and, Adults Services, London NHS Trusts, GPs, Homeland Security, relevant schools, and other educational institutions, including charities and commissioned services. The information will be shared securely and only when it is necessary to do so. We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required to do so by applicable law.
Your personal information is only used for a specified purpose(s) but if we intend to use it for any other new purposes, we will normally ask you first. Where practicable and reasonable we will always seek to inform you of any significant proposed changes to how we process or intend to process your personal data, to ensure full transparency over how we handle your information.
Your data will not be shared outside of the United Kingdom
Why can we collect personal information about you?
The community resilience team collects and processes your personal data on the lawful basis that we have a legal obligation under Article 6 (1)(c) and that ‘the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller’ Article 6(1)(e) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation)
The official authority refers to legislation. For the Community Resilience team, the authorising legislation is the Counterterrorism and Security Act 2015 supplemented by the statutory Channel duty guidance 2023. It is for the purpose of carrying out our duties as defined by this legislation that we need to process your personal information.
We may also collect and process personal data which falls into the ‘special category’ of data (medical information, religious beliefs and political beliefs). To do this, we need an additional lawful basis under Article 9 of the UK GDPR. The lawful basis on which we collect this data is that ‘the processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, on the basis of Union or Member State law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject’ (Article 9(g) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation).
How we store your personal information
Your data will be stored in electronic form on a secure local authority computer database for six years in accordance with the London borough of Ealing corporate retention policy. After this period the information will be reviewed and only kept if there is an ongoing requirement to do so.
We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent your personal information from being lost, used or accessed by other parties. We limit access to your information only to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Anyone processing your information is required to do so in a secure way and is bound by a duty of confidentiality.
Information relating to an individual referred to Channel is recorded on the Home Office approved Channel Case Management and Information System (CMIS) by the local Prevent police teams for the purpose of administering the programme. This information is kept separate from other police databases and can only be accessed by individuals directly involved in the Channel programme.
The data on CMIS is subject to the Code of Practice on the Management of Police Information (MOPI); records are held for a minimum of seven years from the date of the last data entry. After seven years police are required to assess whether it is necessary to retain the information. If it is necessary, the information may be held for a further year (unless there are specific circumstances in which it needs to be held for longer).
Your information is securely stored on our IT systems and manual filing systems. We have strict procedures for the way this is done. All information about you is treated as confidential and with respect.
Your data protection rights
Under data protection law, you have rights including:
Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information. This is called a subject access request.
Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to withdraw consent - You have the right to withdraw consent for the processing of your personal information.
Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to object to processing - You have the the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to data portability - You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.
You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.
Please contact us at dataprotection@ealing.gov.uk if you wish to make a request regarding our processing of personal information concerning yourself and your family.
How to complain
For more general information, please see the council’s corporate privacy statement
If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at dataprotection@ealing.gov.uk
The council’s data protection officer is Mrs L. Cox, whom you can contact on: dataprotection@ealing.gov.uk or telephone 0208 825 5124 during office hours.
You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.
The ICO’s address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk