Privacy Notice - Building Control

Who we are

Spelthorne Borough Council Building Control Department. Your privacy is important to us. We aim for full transparency on how we gather, use, and share your personal information in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations.

What we need

We will collect personal data about you which includes your name, address, telephone number, email etc together with information you have given us in order to deal with enquires or investigate a complaint. This may also include information that we receive from third parties eg your Agent (Architect, Surveyor, etc).

We may also need to record medical information about you if your Building Regulations' application is to be considered for exemption from charging.

Why we need it

We need to use your personal data so we can contact you and provide a service to you. We can also use your personal data under many different laws. The main ones for the Council are the Local Government Acts and the Localism Act 2011, but there are several more. You can see the laws which Building Control work to in Appendix 1. In many cases there is a law that says we must or we can process your data and that we can do so without your consent or permission, as we have a legal obligation to do so.

What is the lawful basis we are relying on?

We collect and use your personal information because it is necessary to perform our public task (Article 6(1)(e) of the General Data Protection Regulation 'GDPR').  In some cases, we may be required by law to share your information (Article 6 (1)(c) 'GDPR').  For the Special Category data, we will process your data to perform a task which is in the substantial public interest (by reason of having a statutory duty and to promote equality of treatment) under Article 9(2)(g) 'GDPR'.

What we do with it

Your personal information will be treated as confidential but it may be shared with other Council services in order to ensure our records are accurate and up-to-date, and to carry out our functions. We will only use your information in ways which are permitted by the UK General Data Protection Regulations and the current UK Data Protection law.

This authority has a duty to protect the public funds it administers, and may use information held about you for all lawful purposes, including but not limited to the prevention and detection of crime including fraud and money laundering.

The Council may also use your information for the purpose of performing any of its statutory enforcement duties. It will make any disclosures required by law and may also share your information with other bodies responsible for detecting/preventing crime including fraud or auditing/administering public funds.

We will not disclose your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.

You have the following rights:

• you have the right to be informed via Privacy Notices such as this,
• you have the right to request access to and to receive a copy of any information we hold about you (including in an electronic format) - to request a copy of this information you must make a subject access request in writing
• if you find that the information Spelthorne Borough Council holds about you is no longer accurate, you have the right to ask to have this corrected
• you have the right - under certain conditions - to ask us to erase your personal data
• you may request that Spelthorne Borough Council stops processing your personal data in relation to any council service (this may delay or prevent us delivering a service to you, we will seek to comply with your request but may be required to hold or process information to comply with our legal duties)

If you require further information about the use of your data or would like to exercise any of the above rights, please contact the data protection officer, whose contact details are below.

How long we keep your information

We will keep your information for as long as it is required by us or other regulatory bodies in order to comply with legal and regulatory requirements or for other operational reasons. In most cases this will be a minimum of six years. More information on our retention schedule can be found on our website.

Contacts

If you have any concerns about how this Department or the Council is handling your personal data, these can be raised with the Council's Data Protection Officer:

Spelthorne Borough Council, Council Offices, Knowle Green, Staines upon Thames, TW18 1XB

Email: data.protection@spelthorne.gov.uk

You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). This is an independent body responsible for making sure that organisations comply with Data Protection legislation.

The ICO will always expect you to have raised your concerns with us before submitting a complaint.

Appendix 1 - relevant legislation

• Building Act 1984
• Building Regulations 2010 (as amended)
• Building (Approved Inspectors etc) Regulations 2010 (as amended)
• Building (Local Authority Charges) Regulations 2010
• Environmental Protection Act 1990