Enforcement Team Privacy Notice

This privacy notice sets out how Ashford Borough Council's (ABC) Enforcement Team (Environment and Land Management) may collect, use and share your personal information.

ABC and its Data Protection Officer can be contacted at: The Data Protection Officer, Ashford Borough Council, International House, Dover Place, Ashford, TN23 1HU or you can email FOI@ashford.gov.uk.

The processing of personal data is governed, in the UK, by the General Data Protection Regulation (the "GDPR") 2016 and any national implementing laws (Data Protection Act 18), regulations and secondary legislation, as amended or updated from time to time, and the regional supervisory authority is the Information Commissioner's Office.

We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office with registration number Z8344724.

Processing activities

The primary objective of the Enforcement Team is to ensure the prevention of illegal dumping, transporting or handling of waste and to ensure that any instances or allegations of these are investigated and dealt with effectively, to this end the Enforcement Team may process any personal information held by the council or other agencies in order to prevent and detect crime, fraud and to protect the public funds we administer. Examples of areas where we may collect personal information whilst fulfilling our function include.

Correspond with you on matters relating to 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 information we hold

In order to conduct investigations it may be necessary to hold the following types of personal information:

Full names
Address(es) previous, current and forwarding
Date of birth
Telephone number
Email address
Move in and out dates
Car registration 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
Images of you if the enforcement officer has activated their body worn video camera (BWVC).

Enforcement Officers are instructed to activate their BWVC on every occasion that a penalty charge notice is issued. The footage is often reviewed by the Appeals and Representation team in the event that an appeal is made against the issue.

Lawful bases for processing

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.
Processing may also be permitted under the following exemptions:
- Schedule 2 Para 2(1) or the Data Protection Act 2018
  Crime and Taxation: General
  2(1) The listed GDPR provisions and Article 34(1) and (4) of the GDPR (communication of personal data breach of the data subject) do not apply to personal data processed for any of the following purposes:
  a) the prevention or detection of crime;
  b) the apprehension or prosecution of offenders; or
  c) the assessment or prosecution of a tax or duty or an imposition of a similar nature to the extent that the application of those provisions would be likely to prejudice any of the matters mentioned in paragraphs (a) to (c).
- Schedule 2 Para 5(3) of the Data Protection Act 2018
  Information required to be disclosed by law etc or in connection with legal proceedings
  5(3) The listed GDPR provisions do not apply to personal data where disclosure of the data:
  a) is necessary for the purpose of, or in connection with, legal proceedings (including prospective legal proceedings);
  b) is necessary for the purpose of obtaining legal advice; or
  c) is otherwise necessary for the purpose of establishing, exercising or defending legal rights, to the extent that the application of those provisions would prevent the controller from making the disclosure.

How we get your information and data sharing

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.

These organisations include:

other council departments
other local authorities
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Joint Unit for Waste Crime
DVLA
Environment Agency
HM Revenue and Customs
National Audit Office
Office for National Statistics
The Police
Other enforcement agents

We may share your information with partner organisations for the purposes of investigations, improving services, keeping records up-to-date, statistical research and for the protection of the public fund.

Retention period

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose we collect it for, including for the purpose of satisfying any future legal, accounting or reporting requirements.

Your rights

Unless subject to an exemption under data protection legislation, you have the following rights:

the right to access;
the right to rectification;
the right to erasure;
the right to restrict processing;
the right to object to processing;
the right to data portability;
the right to complain to a supervisory authority;
the right to withdraw consent.

For further information about your individual rights, including how to contact Ashford Borough Council's Data Protection Officer, please see our data protection pages.

Right to complain

We set ourselves high standards when it comes to protecting your personal data. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive from you about our use of your personal data very seriously and request that you bring any issues to our attention.

Where you are communicating with us for the purpose of making a complaint, we will only use your personal data to handle, investigate and respond to the complaint and to check on the level of service we provide.

If, having exhausted the complaint process, you are not content that your request or review has been dealt with correctly, you can appeal to the ICO to investigate the matter further by writing to:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF