How we use your information
Criminal justice social work reports are requested by the Court following conviction and prior to sentencing. The purpose of the report is to assist the Court in making a decision about how to deal with the case, including which sentence to impose.
A social worker will prepare the report which will include information about current and previous offences, an assessment of risk of reoffending, background information and an assessment of suitability to undertake a Community Payback Order or other community-based sentence.
We receive information from relevant partners (this may include the Scottish Court & Tribunal Service, Police Scotland, the NHS, Housing, Children’s Social Work and other relevant organisations who hold relevant information) which is added to our records and used to inform the report or risk assessment. In some cases, information will be added to our records using automated processing, to speed up the time it takes to deal with simple processes. Decisions about you are not made using automated decision-making.
As well as meeting with you, we may ask for your agreement to speak to, and ask for information from members of your family, employer, doctor, or any other relevant person. This helps with a fuller assessment and allows us to confirm to the Court we have verified key information.
How we share your information
We will treat your case file confidentially, although you should also be aware that we may need to share information with relevant agencies and other relevant professionals in the following circumstances:
- There are concerns about a risk of harm to individuals, groups/communities or the general public or to public safety
- There is a need to prevent, detect or prosecute a serious crime
- You have told us about historical abuse from when you were a child where there might still be ongoing risk posed to children from the same perpetrator
- A court has instructed us to do so.
Information may be used for evaluation, assurance and policy development by the Scottish Government, the Risk Management Authority and Community Justice Scotland. The data for evaluation and research purposes does not enable any individual to be identified by these organisations and this use will not impact on your supervision or case.
Sometimes, during the process of supporting you, you and your Social Worker may decide that it would be beneficial to refer or assist you to access other Council services (for example, Housing) or outside organisations for further help or support. To do this on your behalf will normally mean the Social Worker sharing some information about you with that service or organisation. If this is the case, this will always be discussed between you and your Social Worker, on a case by case basis, and be done with your agreement.
We may also be required to provide information from Reports and Risk Assessments to Scottish Ministers as part of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups Scheme. This is something we are required to do under Section 19 of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007.
How long we keep your information for
Unless you have any other interactions with the Council’s Criminal Justice Social Work Service, we keep reports and risk assessments for three years. If you do have other interactions with Criminal Justice Social Work, we will keep any reports and risk assessments as part of you case file, which we keep on our case management system (CareFirst). We keep closed case files for the current year, plus five years, from the point at which your case is closed.
Your rights
You have rights to your data, including the right to ask for a copy of it. Find out more about all of the rights you have. You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office. They are the body responsible for making sure organisations like the Council handle your data lawfully.
Our legal basis
Aberdeen City Council is the Data Controller for your data. Wherever the Council processes personal data, we need to make sure we have a legal basis for doing so in data protection law. The Council understands our legal basis for processing personal data in relation to providing reports and risk assessments to the Court, the Parole Board or the Prison Service as Article 6(1)(e) of the General Data Protection Regulation. This is because the provision of reports to the Court, the Parole Board and the Prison Service is a part of our public task, as set out in the Social Services (Scotland) Act 1968, as amended by the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003. In carrying out this function, the Council is also likely to process special categories of personal data. The Council
How we share your information
We will treat your case file confidentially, although you should also be aware that we may need to share information with relevant agencies and other relevant professionals in the following circumstances:
There are concerns about a risk of harm to individuals, groups/communities or the general public or to public safety
There is a need to prevent, detect or prosecute a serious crime
You have told us about historical abuse from when you were a child where there might still be ongoing risk posed to children from the same perpetrator
A court has instructed us to do so.
Information may be used for evaluation, assurance and policy development by the Scottish Government, the Risk Management Authority and Community Justice Scotland. The data for evaluation and research purposes does not enable any individual to be identified by these organisations and this use will not impact on your supervision or case.
Sometimes, during the process of supporting you, you and your Social Worker may decide that it would be beneficial to refer or assist you to access other Council services (for example, Housing) or outside organisations for further help or support. To do this on your behalf will normally mean the Social Worker sharing some information about you with that service or organisation. If this is the case, this will always be discussed between you and your Social Worker, on a case by case basis, and be done with your agreement.
We may also be required to provide information from Reports and Risk Assessments to Scottish Ministers as part of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups Scheme. This is something we are required to do under Section 19 of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007.