Political letter from my gp telling who to vote for

[FluffyJellyCat]

Is this even allowed? The gp isn't wrong in what he is saying. But how did he get my personal data to write to me? It's a proper letter addressed to me at my address. Could he access my data for a local election?

Conflict of interest? Gdpr? I'm not going to complain because I have enought going on in my life. But surely this isn't allowed?

What next? The schools head telling me who to vote for?

They can buy a list like anyone else. Hell, they can go through the damned phone book. Unless the addresses were obtained illegally, there is no problem with what they’ve done.

But it is unreasonable for health care providers or schools to contact you using the data that they hold. You've given them your address, email details etc. so that they can contact you regarding your health or your child's education. Using this data to influence the way that you vote is extremely concerning.

Mine told me if I voted Conservative I would be putting NHS dentistry at risk. He wasn’t wrong.

I would complain, that is a misuse of your personal data.

https://www.gov.uk/data-protection/make-a-complaint

Yes it must be this? No one is that silly surely?

That's absolutely true.
But I'd be wanting to know if there was a mass access for a mail out, and as I understand it, NHS systems track access to records so that could be looked into.

Under GDPR it is only lawful for data to be used for purposes that you've given permission for. I very much doubt you would have given permission for this purpose.

I'd google GDPR breech and see what you find.

Neither is my gp. Weirdly he possibly is the gp for all our local candidates. The notorious mp probably doesn't use the nhs

Any local friends who use a different gp surgery? Ask them if they got the letter. Then you would know if it’s gone to the patient list (dodgy) or all local residents staying the view of a community member (imperfect, but much less dodgy)

For the third time, you have no idea how they obtained the addresses.

The first action, if you are bothered, is to contact to surgery and ask.

Assorted professional groups, campaigners, interested people have run letter-writing campaigns to voters in swing seats, outlining the reasons to vote one way or another at many elections in the past.

I remember The Guardian handing out voter roll addresses to somewhere Trump had support for people to write to to beg them to reconsider. (High handed and arrogant action that unsurprisingly backfired).

I’m honestly surprised this has shocked people. It’s a legitimate campaign tool.

If the GP Practice believed the only way to protect their services is to vote (whatever) and they write to the local community residents about that, it may offend your sensibilities but it’s a perfectly legitimate action.

I am not shocked your GP has your address. I am shocked you have a GP with time to write to you and rather surprised you have a GP at all. What's happened to our vanishing GPs?

Never mind who is it addressed to, the important and relevant information is who and where it's addressed from.

Are they using the practice address or stationary?

I can't believe people think this is ok.

I'm sure they only think it's ok because of the inference that the GP was advocating a vote for Labour. I'm sure posters would be less sympathetic if the GP were telling them to vote for Farage.

Come on, this isn't right or impartial. This GP is employed at public expense to provide medical care not to give us his views on politics. FFS.

The electoral register is a public document which anyone can consult and make extracts ...

We are having a general election. Anyone can see the electoral register.

That is outrageous. I would expect any medical professional to be publicly impartial. (Obviously they can vote for who they like in the actual secret ballot).

Whether they have a point or not, if the details have come from patient files then it’s improper use of data. The ICO would take an extremely dim view of this…

The school I work at sent out an email before brexit basically telling everyone to vote remain, it went out to all staff and a letter went out to parents as well. This isn’t anything new, it might not be commonly done but it’s not illegal or breaking any rules. It’s basically just a form of campaigning, you don’t have to listen to it.

Not all medics think the same. I know many who think the NHS in its current form should be killed off ASAP. As a group, they vote for all parties. As individuals, they should not be making their preferences public.

Anyone can access the electoral roll.

If you haven’t opted out via your annual voter registration form, then your details will appear on the marketing version of the electoral roll, which is bought by companies all over the place to access details for marketing purposes.

If you have opted out, your details still have to appear by law on the full version of the roll, held by your local election authority. This can be inspected in person. I have used this before now to find people at addresses I need to reach for work - all fully legitimately.

No GP is using patient records to send out mail shots in support of political parties. Either they have put together a mailing list via the electoral roll, or much more likely, they have given their support to one of the parties who are using them as part of one of their mail shots. Each party is entitled to one free one, all using names and addresses taken from the full electoral roll.

Why?

And obviously it’s from the electoral roll on behalf of the party, not scraped from the practice’s patient list.

It is totally unreasonable. It is not in the remit of a GP or school to try and influence how people vote.