This notice explains what personal data (information) we hold about you, how we collect, how we use and how we may share information about you. We are required to give you this information under data protection law.

Who we are

The Kent Country Parks service is owned and run by Kent County Council. Kent County Council provides a range of statutory and other services to local people and businesses and needs to collect, use and process personal data to deliver these services. When we do so we are regulated under the General Data Protection Regulation which applies across the European Union (including in the United Kingdom) and we are responsible as ‘data controller’ of that personal information for the purposes of those laws. Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

Personal information we collect and use

When we collect and use your personal information we will comply with the Data Protection Principles. In order to collect personal data this must be provided to us via our online booking platform. Information provided to us in relation to a team building booking in any other format, including written or verbal information will be transferred to our online booking platform in order to administer your booking. The online booking platform is accessed through the Kent Country Parks website and notification about cookies is provided. The booking platform is hosted by a third party.

In order for you to be able to volunteer with us we collect the following information from you when you provide it to us:

• Your contact details (e.g. full name, full address including post code, your telephone number and optionally your email address)
• Your vehicle registration number(s) if applicable
• Your bank account details for payment of expenses if applicable
• Your next of kin contact details (e.g. full name, full address including post code, telephone number)
• Disability or medical needs if this will affect your ability to participate in volunteering activities or where adjustments need to be made to activities to accommodate this (e.g. allergies, asthma, resources needing to be printed on coloured paper, wheelchair access).

We use your personal information to:

• Contact you with details of volunteering opportunities
• Provide accessible, safe and where necessary tailored volunteering opportunities and training that take into account your personal circumstances and/or limitations
• Contact your next of kin in the event of an accident or incident whilst volunteering
• Reimburse you financially for expenses occurred in the course of your volunteering (in accordance with our expenses policy)
• Provide you with exemption from daily parking charges whilst volunteering

In order to book team building you are required to set up an account with us. This will allow you to manage your personal information, delete your account with us, view and amend your past, current and future bookings if applicable and to make new bookings (in accordance with our Terms and Conditions).

If you give us the relevant opt-in consent when you set up an account with us we may use your personal information to:

• send you marketing information about relevant Kent Country Parks events or services we think may be of interest to you
• send newsletters, annual reports and other relevant information about Kent Country Parks that we think may be of interest to you.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will hold your personal information securely and retain it only for the duration of your volunteering position with us. When your volunteering position with us ends your data will be deleted within a maximum of four weeks.

Reasons we collect and use your personal information

The provision of your personal information is required from you to enable us provide you with volunteering opportunities.

If you do not provide your personal information, we will be unable to arrange for you to volunteer with us.

When you accept your volunteering opportunity you give us consent to use your personal data and special category personal data (e.g. health data) where relevant. We rely on ‘the data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of his or her personal data and where applicable his or her special category personal data for one or more specific purposes’ as being the lawful basis on which we collect and use your personal information.

We rely on Articles 6(1)(a) – Consent to processing of data and Article 9(1)(a) – Consent to processing of special category data.

Your data is stored securely on the Kent County Council servers and only accessible to specific users via encrypted usernames and passwords. In addition your individual data record file has a separate password that is only held by members of Kent Country Parks staff that are directly involved in your volunteering opportunity.

Who we share your personal information with

All our staff are employed directly by Kent County Council and are trained to handle your information correctly and protect your privacy. Your personal information including health data will only be shared with other Kent Country Parks staff. You personal information, excluding health data, will only be shared with other Kent County Council staff, Kent County Council departments or commissioned providers of local authority services (call centre and payment services) as required to facilitate your volunteering or where required to by law and with sound legal basis.

This data sharing enables you to safely volunteer with Kent Country Parks.

Your rights

Under GDPR you have rights which you can exercise free of charge which allow you to:

• know what we are doing with your information and why we are doing it
• ask to see what information we hold about you (subject access request)
• ask us to correct any mistakes in the information we hold about you
• object to direct marketing
• make a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office
• withdraw consent at any time (if applicable).

Depending on our reason for using your information you may also be entitled to:

• ask us to delete information we hold about you
• have your information transferred electronically to yourself or to another organisation
• object to decisions being made that significantly affect you
• object to how we are using your information
• stop us using your information in certain ways.

We will always seek to comply with your request however we may be required to hold or use your information to comply with legal duties. Please note: your request may delay or prevent us providing season ticket facilities to you.

For further information about your rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the guidance from the UK Information Commissioners Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under GDPR.

If you would like to exercise a right, please contact the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@kent.gov.uk.

Keeping your personal information secure

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Contact

Please contact the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@kent.gov.uk to exercise any of your rights, or if you have a complaint about why your information has been collected, how it has been used or how long we have kept it for.

You can contact our Data Protection Officer, Benjamin Watts, at dpo@kent.gov.uk, or write to: Data Protection Officer, Sessions House, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1XQ.

GDPR also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted on 03031 231113.

Read our corporate privacy statement.