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Trading Standards Explosive Licence Application privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and it was last updated on 1 July 2022.

Kent County Council (KCC) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

Who we are

Kent County Council collects, uses and is responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are regulated under the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (‘UK GDPR’) and the Data Protection Act 2018. We are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information.

The KCC Trading Standards service is responsible for creating and maintaining a safe and fair-trading environment where Kent businesses can operate and grow, and Kent consumers can engage in their economic activity with confidence.

Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

Personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

In the course of processing applications to store explosives, we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:

  • Name
  • Contact details (address, email address and telephone numbers)

We may also collect special category personal data, if relevant, and information about any criminal convictions and offences. We recognise that personal information concerning criminal convictions and offences is not special category personal data but is a very sensitive type of personal information which can only be processed for specific and legitimate purposes.

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

  • process your application and ensure that you are not prohibited from holding a licence to store explosive substances on your premises, as per the Explosives Regulations 2014
  • update you on any changes to this legislation.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

We rely on Article 6(1)(c) as the lawful basis on which we collect and use your personal data ie that ‘processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation’, specifically the Explosives Regulations 2014.  Under these Regulations, Kent County Council is the licensing authority.

We rely on Article 9(2)(a) as the lawful basis on which we collect and use your special categories of personal data, as explicit consent has been given to the processing of that data for a specified purpose, namely processing the explosive licence application.

We rely on section 29 from Schedule 1, Part 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018 to process your criminal convictions data, namely that consent has been given.

We take the following appropriate safeguards in respect of your special category and/or criminal convictions data when relying on the conditions above:

  • We have a Special Category and Criminal Records Appropriate Policy Document in place when using your special category and/or criminal records data
  • This policy is retained throughout the time we use of your data and for six months after we cease to use it
  • We have a Retention Schedule which explains how long data is retained
  • We maintain a record of our processing in our ‘Record of Processing Activities’ and record in it any reasons for deviating from the periods in our Retention Schedule.

As we have a statutory basis for collecting your personal data if you do not provide all the personal data requested, we may be unable to process your application and unable to grant you a licence to store explosives.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will hold your personal information for:

  • the duration of the licence plus six years, after which time, it will be securely destroyed.
  • if your application for an explosives licence is unsuccessful, we keep your application on file for three years, after which time, it will be securely destroyed.

Who we share your personal information with

We routinely share the location of, and emergency contact details for, premises that are licenced to store explosives with the Kent Fire and Rescue service for use in an emergency, to protect life. Kent Fire and Rescue are a signatory to a documented protocol which sets out how public services in Kent share information whilst respecting the privacy and confidentiality of individuals and protecting their personal information whilst ensuring they receive effective and efficient services.

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law or in connection with legal proceedings.

We will share personal information with our legal and professional advisers in the event of a dispute, complaint or claim. If applicable we rely on Article 9(2)(f) where the processing of special category data is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity.

Your rights

Under the UK GDPR you have a number of rights which you can access 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
  • ask us to correct any mistakes in the information we hold about you
  • object to direct marketing
  • make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

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

  • object to how we are using your information
  • 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
  • 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.

For further information about your rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation.

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

Your right to withdraw your consent

Where we rely on your consent to process your personal information, you can withdraw your consent to our use of your data at any time.

You can do this by contacting 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.

Who to 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.

The United Kingdom GDPR also gives you right to lodge a complaint with Information Commissioner, who may be contacted via the Information Commissioner's website or call 03031 231113.

Read our corporate privacy statement.