Cremations and burials privacy notice

This privacy notice is designed to help you understand how and why North Yorkshire Council processes your personal data. This notice should be read in conjunction with our corporate privacy notice.

Who are we?

North Yorkshire Council is a ‘data controller’ as defined by Article 4(7) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The council provides a burial and cremation service (including public health funerals) to members of the community.

The council has appointed Veritau to be its data protection officer. Their contact details are:

Information Governance Office

Veritau

West Offices

Station Rise

York

North Yorkshire

YO1 6GA

Email: infogov@northyorks.gov.uk

Tel: 01904 552848

What personal information do we collect?

To deliver a cremation service, we will collect the following categories of personal data:

  • name and contact information for those involved in the arrangement of a service
  • employee details from organisations involved in burial/cremation arrangements, such as stone masons, funeral directors, etc
  • your communication preferences including your consent to be contacted regarding our memorial services

At crematoriums CCTV may be in operation for purposes of the prevention and detection of crime, to ensure the health and safety of those on site and assist with overall management Crematorium operations. Visual footage will be collected.

Why do we collect your personal information?

We will use the information you provide to deliver:

  • cremation services and memorialisation. 
  • burial services including administering of public health funerals and purchase of rights of burial
  • application for memorials.

We only use these details to provide the service requested or for other closely related services such as the provision of discretionary memorial information available within the service which may be of interest to you.

Who do we obtain your information from?

We may collect your personal information from third parties both internal and external to the council. Internally, we will collect your information from the following areas of the council:

  • environmental health (for public health funerals)

Externally to the council, we will obtain your personal information from the following:

  • organisations involved in cremation arrangements such as funeral directors, etc
  • other public sector organisations i.e. NHS

Who do we share this information with?

Throughout the course of providing a cremation service, we may share information with third parties who are involved in the cremation process, such as ministers and funeral directors, solicitors, memorial masons etc. We will only share the minimum data necessary in order to provide the cremation service.

CCTV footage may be shared with other agencies such as the police for crime prevention purposes.

How long do we keep your information for?

Data held

Retention period

Statutory cremation forms

15 years after the cremation date

Cremation registers

Permanently

Cemetery records

99 years

Personal data given in memorial leases

Period of lease & up to 60 days after end of lease renewal date

CCTV footage

31 days

What is our lawful basis for processing your information?

North Yorkshire Council relies on the following lawful basis to process your personal data:

  • UK GDPR Article 6(1)(a) - the data subject has given consent to the processing of their personal data for one or more specific purposes
  • UK GDPR Article 6(1)(e) – processing is necessary for completion of a task in the public interest

The legislation(s) relevant to this function are as follows:

  • cremation act 1902
  • cemeteries clauses act 1847
  • the cremation act 1902, the cremation act 1952
  • burial act 1852, 1857 2008
  • the registration of burials act 1864
  • the local authorities cemeteries order 1977
  • the public health (control of diseases) act 1984
  • the cremation (England and Wales) regulations 2008

For more information about how we use your data, including your privacy rights and the complaints process, please see our corporate privacy notice.