Blue Badge privacy notice

General information

The Blue Badge team is responsible for processing and providing Blue Badges. As part of this process, we will need to collect and use personal data in order to fulfil these duties.

The processing of personal data is governed by the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018), as amended by the Data Use and Access Act 2025 (DUAA), collectively referred to as data protection law

This privacy notice explains how the Blue Badge team uses information about you when you contact us or use our services, and how we protect your privacy.

Suffolk County Council is the controller for the personal information that is being processed. If you have any queries about how the Blue Badge team is collecting or using your personal data, you can contact the team on:

Telephone: 03456 066 077

Email: bluebadgeteam@suffolk.gov.uk

Contact details for the council’s Data Protection Officer and Compliance Manager can be found in the council’s corporate privacy notice, which is available on the council’s website.

What is personal data?

Personal data includes information about you, which can be used to identify you as an individual. Examples include:

• Your name
• Your date of birth
• Your contact details
• Your image

Special category data is the most sensitive type of personal data and includes:

• Information about your health or any social care services that you may use
• Information that could identify your racial or ethnic origins
• Information that could identify your political beliefs
• Information that could identify your religious or philosophical beliefs
• Information that could identify your trade union membership
• Genetic data
• Biometric data (where used to identify you, e.g. use of fingerprints, facial recognition, to access online services)
• Information about your sex life, or sexual orientation

The types of personal data that we process and where it comes from

We collect the following personal data from you when you call our contact centre:

• name
• contact details including email address and telephone number
• your date of birth
• your national insurance number
• any relevant health details to support your application

We may also ask you to forward copies of the following information from other sources:

• medical info from Hospital Consultants and other health care professionals
• a copy of your patient summary record from your GP

Do you have to provide your information to us?

You have a statutory obligation to provide the Blue Badge team with personal data in relation to the processing of an application.

Why do we process your personal data?

Our reasons for using personal information include:

• delivery of services and support to you
• managing our services
• monitoring and protecting public spending
• monitoring the quality of our services to ensure they are delivered in the most efficient and effective way
• complying with laws that require us to provide personal information to other organisations, such as health organisations and courts

Our legal basis for processing your information

Personal data

Under data protection law, the Blue Badge team can only process your personal data if it is lawful to do so. Please see the details below of the lawful bases that we rely on for processing different types of personal data.

For processing personal data, we rely on the following lawful basis:

• UK GDPR Article 6(1)(e) – where processing is necessary for us to perform a task which is in the public interest (public task)

Special category data

When we process special category data, we rely on the following additional lawful bases:

• UK GDPR Article 9(2)(b) – where processing is necessary for the Blue Badge team to carry out specific obligations or exercise rights relating to employment, social security, and social protection (Schedule 1, Part 1, section 1, DPA 2018)
• UK GDPR Article 9(2)(g) – where processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, specifically:
• for statutory and government purposes (Schedule 1, Part 2, section 6, DPA 2018)

Sharing your information

The Blue Badge team does share information as part of the application process with the following recipients:

• Access Independent – an independent mobility assessment company in line with our policy

We may also share your information when we are required by law, for example when:

• we are required to by the Courts
• the Police request information related to a serious criminal investigation

Whether we intend to transfer your information to another country

We do not transfer any personal data to any countries or international organisations outside of the EU, the EEA (European Economic Area), or any other country that does not have an equivalent level of data protection to the UK.

How long we keep your information

We keep personal data for as long as we need it to fulfil the purpose that it was collected for, and in line with any statutory or locally determined retention periods.

Please see the table below which contains the retention periods for specific data types processed by the Blue Badge team:

Automated decision-making and profiling

The Blue Badge team does not use automated decision-making processes or profiling in respect of your information.

Your rights under data protection law

Under data protection law, you have the right to request access to the information

that we hold about you. If you would like to make a request to access your personal

information, please contact data.protection@suffolk.gov.uk.

You also have other rights regarding your personal data. You can find out more information about these rights by looking at the council’s corporate privacy notice.

Your right to independent advice

If you would like independent advice on this privacy notice or other matters about how Suffolk County Council processes your personal data, including how to make a complaint, you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office at:

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Email: casework@ico.org.uk