How I handle your data.

I am known as a ‘data controller’ for the use of your personal data listed in this notice. My use is separate to the Labour Party’s. To understand how the Labour Party uses your personal data, see the privacy pages on its website.

Why I use your personal data

My main uses of your personal data fall under what’s known as democratic engagement: making decisions about how best to run the constituency and country, and how best to represent your views in Parliament.

That means using your data to communicate with you, gather your opinions through meetings, calls and surveys, conduct casework, and keep you informed of my work. Where you have engaged with me on casework, I’ll keep you up to date with a service-message newsletter. Where you’ve interacted with me outside casework, I ask for your consent first, and you can opt out at any time.

Special category data

Some of your data may fall into ‘Special Category’ data: more private and sensitive information about ethnicity, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic and biometric data, health, sex life or sexual orientation. I use this only where the law allows, and only when it’s necessary for democratic engagement or safeguarding.

How your data is collected

Mostly directly from you: when you submit casework, speak to me at an event or while I’m campaigning, sign up to a newsletter, make a donation, or fill in a survey. You may also have contacted me by email, the ‘Contact’ form on this site, or via social media.

I have a legal entitlement to the full electoral register for my constituency, which includes the full name and address of every registered elector, and I may write to you in connection with my activities as an MP.

Who I share your data with

I will only share as much personal data as is necessary for the purpose it was collected. I never sell your personal data, and it is never used for commercial gain.

Your data may be processed by the Parliamentary Digital Service (PDS) as a technology service provider for my Parliamentary email and storage. PDS cannot use your data unless there is a legal or safeguarding reason to do so.

If relevant to casework, I’ll share your details with people who can help: local councils, Government departments, charities. Where you might be able to help on someone else’s casework as a useful contact, I’ll seek your permission first.

Newsletter and news content

My newsletter and the news section of this site are powered by Substack, which acts as a sub-processor when you subscribe or when your browser loads recent posts on the news page. Substack handles the email addresses of subscribers and stores published posts. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any newsletter email, and you can read Substack’s privacy notice for details of how they handle your data.

Surgery booking form

When you submit the surgery booking form, the details you provide (name, email, phone if given, postcode, preferred area and message) are stored in Airtable, which my office uses to triage and respond to requests. Airtable acts as a data processor on my behalf. The data is held only for as long as needed to handle your case and is not shared beyond the parties already described above. You can ask the office to delete your record at any time.

Artificial intelligence

Your personal data is never shared with any AI systems or large data models. Any use of AI is with anonymous data only. AI is not trained or iterated on your personal data. Where there’s a more sophisticated AI use case, I ensure functional anonymisation so the data meets the threshold of being for altruistic purposes only.

Legal basis for using your data

The laws governing my use of your personal data are the Representation of the People Act 2001, the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, the Data Protection Act 2018, and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

For most uses I rely on either a ‘task in the public interest’ under Article 6.1(e) (democratic engagement) or ‘legitimate interest’ under Article 6.1(f) (e.g. service messages, recruitment). Special category data is used under Article 9.2(g) ‘substantial public interest’ or 9.2(f) for the defence of legal claims.

How long I keep your data

Unless you tell me otherwise, I’ll keep your data until it’s no longer tenable to do so, usually until I’m no longer your MP. Casework data is kept only as long as needed to resolve your case, then minimised to a contact record so you don’t have to start again if you contact me later.

Keeping your data secure

I align with the national Labour Party’s security processes and have appropriate measures in place to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. Access is limited to those who need it, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. Where required by law, I’ll notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach.

Your rights

You have the right to:

• Withdraw any consent you’ve given (the ‘right to object’).
• Request access to the personal data I hold about you.
• Ask me to update or correct your data (the ‘right to rectification’).
• Request that I delete the personal data I hold (the ‘right to erasure’).
• Ask me to restrict processing of your data.

To exercise any of these, please email me at john.slinger.mp@parliament.uk. I’d also recommend submitting the same request to the national Labour Party, as I don’t have access to all the systems they do.

Complaints

To raise a concern about how I’ve handled your data, please contact the Labour Data Protection Team at dataprotection@labour.org.uk, stating my name. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection, though I’d be grateful for the chance to address your concern first.