Who we are
We are a Local Authority established under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 and have our headquarters at Scottish Borders Council, Newtown St Boswells, Melrose, TD6 0SA. You can contact our Customer Advice and Support Service by:
- email: CustomerAdvice@scotborders.gov.uk
- phone: 0300 100 1800
Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted using the above or by emailing dataprotection@scotborders.gov.uk
How we will use your information
The personal information we hold about you may be collected by:
- online form
- phone
- a member of our staff
Arrangement and Delivery of Citizenship Ceremonies
You are giving us your personal information to allow us to deliver the service to you, under the British Nationality Act, 1981. We also use your information to verify your identity where required, contact you by post, email or phone and to maintain our records.
Booking of Civil Marriage and Civil Partnership Ceremonies
You are giving us your personal information to allow us to provide a Registrar to carry out a ceremony at a venue which has been mutually agreed by the couple and Registrar/local authority. This is carried out under Section 3 (1) of the Marriage Scotland Act, 1977 and the Civil Partnership Act, 2004. We also use your information to verify your identity where required, contact you by post, email or telephone and to maintain our records.
Booking of Non-Statutory (Symbolic) Ceremonies
You are giving us your personal information to allow us to carry out a non-statutory (symbolic) ceremony at a venue which has been mutually agreed between the parties and Registrar/local authority. We also use your information to verify your identity where required, contact you by post, email or phone and to maintain our records.
Bookings for Family History Research
You are giving us your personal information to allow us to process and confirm your booking for family history research and to record usage of the service. We also use your information to verify your identity where required, contact you by post, email or phone and to maintain our records.
We process personal data that can be used to identify you, such as your:
- name
- previous name/s
- address
- date of birth
- marital status
- phone number
- email address
Who we may share your information with?
Your information will be accessed by our staff who need to do so in order to provide the services described above. We are legally obliged to safeguard public funds so we are required to verify and check your details internally for fraud prevention. We may share this information with other public bodies (and also receive information from these other bodies) for fraud checking purposes.
We are also legally obliged to share certain data with other public bodies, such as HMRC, Home Office and other immigration authorities, National Records of Scotland and Police Scotland and will do so where the law requires this. We will also generally comply with requests for specific information from other regulatory and law enforcement bodies where this is necessary and appropriate.
Where there is a requirement for translation and interpreting services we may share your data with any of the following as appropriate:
- Language Line
- Alpha Translating and Interpreting Services LTD
- Scottish Borders Interpreter Agency
- Contact Scotland - BSL
- Royal Blind - Scottish Braille Press
Information you have given us about other people
If you have provided anyone else's details on this form, please make sure that you have told them that you have given their information to us. We will only use this information to contact those people to assess your own entitlement to this service. If they want any more information on how we will use their data they can view our privacy statement or email dataprotection@scotborders.gov.uk
How long do we keep your information for?
The information you have provided will be kept secure and confidential until:
- after your citizenship ceremony, marriage or civil partnership ceremony or non-statutory (symbolic) ceremony. The information will not be retained unless it is required for audit purposes as per the guidance from the National Records of Scotland and the Scottish Council on Archives Record Retention Schedules
- after your family history research has been completed, the information will not be retained following your final family history research appointment
- it is sent to the Home Office, no information will be retained by us once this has been sent
Your Rights
You have the right to request access to any personal data held about you by us. You can also request that we restrict the use of your information or even object to any further processing. You can do this by contacting the Data Protection Officer. We will respond to your request within 30 calendar days.
For more information on your rights please see our website or if you would like a hard copy of this information, please contact us.
How to raise a complaint
We aim to directly resolve all complaints about how we handle personal information. If your complaint is about how we have handled your personal information, you can contact our Data Protection Officer by:
- email: dataprotection@scotborders.gov.uk
- phone: 0300 100 1800
You also have the right to lodge a complaint about data protection matters with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), who can be contacted by:
- post: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
- phone: 0303 123 1113
- website
If your complaint is not about a data protection matter you can find details on how to make a complaint.