Environmental Enforcement, including Dog Wardens

The following information provides details on how we may collect use and where appropriate share personal information in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR). It should be read in conjunction with the Council’s privacy notice document.
 

Why we collect personal data

Scarborough Borough Council takes environmental offences very seriously; we will always investigate and seek to bring those responsible to justice. This is primarily done through the issuing of fixed penalty notices.

We collect personal data to enable us to process and investigate the incident being reported. This includes witness statements and investigations related to the incident reported.

We use your information where necessary to carry out enforcement action and issue Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN’s) for matters such as fly-tipping, dog fouling and removal of abandoned vehicles.  We will use your information to:

• Correspond with you on matters relating to any investigation;
• Investigate intelligence reports;

Conduct investigations into:

• Fly tipping
• Duty of care (commercial and household)
• Littering
• Dog fouling
• Illegal handling of waste
• Anti social behaviour relating to waste
• Any other investigations into fraudulent activity relating to waste management

 

What personal data we collect

The personal data we collect will include:

• name

• address

• email address

• telephone number

• Date of birth

• Occupation dates of properties

• Vehicle registration details

• Vehicle ownership details

• Dog Microchip owner details

• Employer details

• Income details

• Expenditure details

• Other financial details

• National Insurance number

• Details of licences or permits

• Any information found as evidence in fly tipped material

• CCTV Footage – stills and live video

• Images of you if the enforcement officer has activated their body worn video camera (BWVC).

We also collect details of any enquiries or complaints which you make in respect of the service.

In specific circumstances we collect financial details to allow payment for applicable services (e.g. commercial waste, garden waste) and for payment of fixed penalty notices and fines issued.  We may also collect information about the number of people in your household (e.g. regarding eligibility for a larger capacity bin). 

In some circumstances we'll need more details and sometimes sensitive personal data, such as health data, for example if you receive an assisted waste collection service or a clinical waste collection, or if you use this information as part of an appeal.

See our Data Protection Policy for details on how we define personal and non-personal data.

We may monitor and record electronic communications (website, email and phone conversations) for a number of reasons such as:

staff training

records of conversations

the detection, investigation and prevention of crime

We will inform you if your call is being recorded or monitored. 

Emails that we send to you or you send to us, may be retained as a record of contact and your email address stored for future use in accordance with our retention periods. If we need to email sensitive or confidential information to you, we may perform checks to verify the correct email address and may take additional security measures.

How we use your personal data

We'll only use your personal data in accordance with data protection legislation, and for the purposes stated in this privacy notice.

We'll:

• only ask for what is necessary for the purposes of environmental enforcement
• protect it and make sure nobody has access to it who shouldn’t
• ensure you know if you have a choice about giving us personal data
• only share your personal data with other Scarborough Borough Council departments or with external partners, agencies and contractors involved in delivering services on our behalf
• make sure we don’t keep it for longer than is necessary
• delete or destroy it securely when we no longer have a need to keep it

We ask that you:

• give us accurate information
• tell us as soon as possible of any changes
• tell us as soon as possible if you notice mistakes in the information we hold about you

From time to time, we may conduct or ask you to take part in a survey to get your feedback, comments and opinions to help us improve our services.

Who we share your personal data with

We predominantly collect information from you when you fill in any forms, are interviewed (including under caution), contact us in writing, speak to us face to face, on the phone, by email, or communicate with us in any other way.  In addition, some of the information about you may be retrieved as evidence during a physical investigation of a site such as receipts, address labels and letters.   Some of the information we hold about you may come from third party sources such as the Police, other Council departments and other third party witnesses and partners.

• We may share your personal data for the purposes of investigating waste enforcement offences, including with the following organisations:
• Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
• DVLA
• Environment Agency
• HM Revenue and Customs
• Police
• Other Council departments

Details of successful prosecutions for waste offences will be published on our website, in line with the guidance on publishing sentencing outcomes.

Any information we use in presentations or reports will be anonymised and will not identify any individuals. For example a report on the levels of recycling or numbers of missed collections will not feature any of your personal data.

We do not disclose or share sensitive or confidential information without your explicit consent except where disclosure is required by law, or where we have good reason to believe that failing to do so, would put you or someone else at risk.

We may be required or permitted, under data protection legislation, to disclose your personal data without your explicit consent, for example if we have a legal obligation to do so, such as for:

• law enforcement
• fraud investigations
• regulation and licensing
• criminal prosecutions
• court proceedings

We must protect public funds and may use personal data and data-matching techniques to detect and prevent fraud, collect taxes and ensure public money is targeted and spent in the most appropriate and cost-effective way. To do this, your personal data may be shared with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds, including the Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs, the Police and other local authorities.  We may also share personal data with other Council departments for the purposes of investigations.

Our legal basis for collecting and sharing personal data

There are a number of legal reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information. For this service:

Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation under; Environmental Protection Act 1990; Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005; Control of Pollution (Amendment) Act 1989; Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 - Transportation and Sale of Scrap Metal; Environmental Act 1995; Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984; Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014; Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000; Dog (Fouling of Land) Act 1996 and any other relevant legislation or amendments.

Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller

Our service also needs to use sensitive personal data also called “special category data” which requires more protection to keep it safe. This is often information you would not want to be widely known and is very personal to you. It includes health data necessary for assessments for our assisted waste collection service, and for our clinical waste collection service.  We may need this information to help with our investigations.

We will take extra care of this data. The legal reason for us to collect and use this personal information is:

• Processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.

How long we keep your personal data

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements.  We will keep your personal data in accordance with our document retention schedule.  We will delete or destroy your personal data securely.

At the end of the retention period, we may pass any relevant information to the Archives where it is required or appropriate to do so.

Further processing of personal data

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Privacy Notice, then we'll provide you with a new notice.

The new notice will:

• explain this new use before we start the processing
• set out the relevant purposes and processing conditions

Where and whenever necessary, we'll seek your consent to the new processing, if we start to use your personal data for a purpose not mentioned in this Privacy Notice

Personal data from online payments

The personal data you give to us when using our online payment system will only be used for the recording of your payment. We'll ensure that it is used for no other purpose and is not disclosed to a third party such as other companies or individuals, unless required to do so by law for the prevention of crime and the detection of fraud.

We'll hold it securely and only for as long as is needed. It will then be deleted in line with our Retention and Disposal Policy and Procedures.

Your rights relating to your personal data

When we collect your personal data we'll tell you how we are going to use it. Where we process your personal data, you have a number of rights under data protection law.

Find information about your rights on our UK GDPR page.

Further information

If you have any questions, want to exercise your rights, or if you have a complaint about how your information has been used, please contact us at dataprotection@scarborough.gov.uk or on 01723 232323 or write to:

Data Protection Officer
Scarborough Borough Council
Town Hall
St Nicholas Street
Scarborough
North Yorkshire
YO11 2HG