Pest Control Service Privacy Notice

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council
Mount Pleasant Road
Royal Tunbridge Wells
Kent
TN1 1RS

Email: dataprotection@tunbridgewells.gov.uk

Telephone: 01892 526121

We collect information from you when you visit our website; also when you contact us in writing, speak to us on the phone, by email or any other type of electronic communication, or talk to us face to face.

We need to know your name and address and financial information such as whether you claim any type of benefits to enable us to process the pest control treatment with our contractor free of charge.

We provide pest control services to the residents of the borough who are in receipt of certain benefits. This is because it is in the wider public interest to do so.

When you request the service from us, you are giving us your consent to use your personal information. You can tell us to stop using your information at any time, but we may have to stop providing the service to you.

Occasionally, we will use your personal information because we have identified a public health hazard. We do not need your consent to do this, but if possible, we will let you know we are using your information in this way.

We use your information to assess your application for the free discretionary pest service. We will not use it for any other purpose without your consent, or without telling you first.

Sometimes we have to give it to other authorities, organisations or people. This would be for the prevention or detection of crime, or because of legal matters, for example. We do not need your consent to do this, but if we can, we'll let you know if we've passed your information on.

Maidstone Borough Council stores your information on our behalf. You can view their privacy information on the Maidstone Borough Council website.

Monitor Pest Control Ltd, our contractor, will also use your information. They will not use your information for any other reason than to provide you with the service you have requested, and they still have to look after your information in the same way. You can view their privacy information on the Monitor Pest Control website.

What are your rights in relation to the personal information we process?

• Access – you can request copies of any of your personal information that is held by the council.
• Rectification – you can ask us to correct any incorrect information.
• Deletion – you can ask us to delete your personal information. The council can refuse to delete information if we have a lawful reason to keep this.
• Portability – you can ask us to transfer your personal data to different services or to you.
• Right to object or restrict processing – you have the right to object to how your data is being used and how it is going to be used in the future.
• Right to prevent automatic decisions – you have to challenge a decision that affects you that has been made automatically without human intervention, for example an online form with an instant decision.

We will only keep your information for as is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected. Once we no longer need it, we will retain it for a set period (a retention period) but not use it. When the retention period expires we will delete your information from our records. For further information please see our retention schedule.

What security precautions are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of your information?

We are strongly committed to data security and will take reasonable and appropriate steps to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or corruption. We have put in place physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard the information you provide to us.

We want to ensure any information we hold is accurate. You can help us by promptly informing us of any changes to the information we hold about you.

There are no automated decisions in this process.

If you are accessing online services and are aged 13 or under‚ please get your parent/guardian's permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal information.

What are cookies and why are they used?

Cookies are small text files which identify your computer to our servers. They are used to improve the user experience. View what cookies we use and how you can manage them at on our privacy and cookies page.

If you would like to make a complaint regarding the use of your personal data you can contact our Data Protection Officer:

Email: dataprotection@tunbridgewells.gov.uk

For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing issues, you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at:

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

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number.

Alternatively, visit the Information Commissioner's Office website or email casework@ico.org.uk.