Environmental Enforcement

The proper handling of personal information by Carmarthenshire County Council is very important to the delivery of our services and maintaining public confidence.

Personal data is any information that relates to a person who can be directly or indirectly identified from the information. The terms ‘information’ and ‘personal data’ are used throughout this privacy notice and have the same meaning.

To ensure that the Council treats personal information correctly, we seek to adhere in full to the requirements of Data Protection legislation.

This privacy notice has therefore been produced to explain as clearly as possible what we do with your personal data.

1. The purpose for which we use your personal data

The information we collect about you will be used for the purpose of detecting and prosecuting environmental offences, such as fly tipping, littering and dog fouling.

The legal basis for the processing of this personal data is to comply with our legal obligation to investigate and enforce offences under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

2. What type of information do we use?

We collect the following types of personal data about you to deliver this service:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Date of birth
  • Gender
  • Unique reference numbers
  • Telephone numbers
  • Email addresses
  • Your financial circumstances and bank details
  • Images/photographs, which can be obtained by covert CCTV
  • Vehicle registration numbers

We collect and use information about your health, but only in specific circumstances where this is relevant and needs to be taken into account in a criminal process.  Information about any criminal convictions is also recorded when we prosecute.  These types of sensitive, special category personal data are processed for reasons of substantial public interest, on the basis of the legislation referred to above.

3. Do we use information received from other sources?

To provide this service, we collect information directly from you but also receive information from the following sources:

  • The Police
  • Natural Resources Wales
  • Other relevant Council services
  • Members of the public, who make complaints or give witness statements

The following types of personal data are obtained, depending on your circumstances:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Date of birth
  • Gender
  • Unique reference numbers
  • Telephone numbers
  • Email address
  • Your financial circumstances and bank details
  • Employment and education details
  • Your housing needs
  • Images/photographs
  • Vehicle registration numbers

4. Transferring your information abroad

We use Microsoft Office 365 to process our electronic documents under the terms of a strict agreement, which safeguards your information. This personal data is hosted on servers outside the UK, but only in EU countries which are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation.

We don’t transfer any other information about you outside of the UK.

5. Who has access to your information?

We share your personal data only when there is a need for us to do so.  When we do this, we provide the minimum amount of information that is necessary in each case to the following recipients:

  • The Police
  • Natural Resources Wales
  • Other relevant Council services

There are other specific situations where we may be required to disclose information about you, such as:

  • Where we are required to provide the information by law
  • Where disclosing the information is required to prevent or detect a crime
  • Where disclosure is in the vital interests of the person concerned

6. How long we will keep your information

We will keep your information for 7 years as per legal requirements for criminal offences.

7. Your Data Protection rights

You have the right to:

  • Obtain access to the personal data that Carmarthenshire Council is processing about you
  • Have any inaccurate or incomplete information rectified (corrected)
  • Withdraw your consent to processing, where this is the only basis for the processing
  • Make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the independent body in the UK which protects information rights

In some circumstances, you may have the right to:

  • Object to the processing of your personal information
  • The erasure of your personal data
  • Restrict the processing of your personal information
  • Data portability

8. Contact details

For more information regarding this privacy notice and your rights, please contact:

Data Protection Officer
Carmarthenshire County Council
County Hall
Carmarthen
SA31 1JP

Email: dataprotection@carmarthenshire.gov.uk

Contact details for the Information Commissioner’s Office along with further guidance on Data Protection legislation can be found on the ICO website .

Council & Democracy