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Trading Standards Information for Criminal Investigations 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.  As part of completing this work, the service will investigate criminality relating to trading activity following all lines of enquiry in relation to any criminal activity.

Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

Personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

In the course of investigating criminality and following all lines of enquiry in relation to that criminality, the personal information we may collect includes:

  • Your name
  • Your date of birth
  • Your contact details including address, telephone numbers and email addresses
  • Your occupation
  • Your banking details
  • Business specific information
  • Special category (health data) and criminal offence data.

We may also obtain personal information from other sources such as:

  • other KCC services
  • external enforcement partners,
  • external public services.

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

Direct our criminal investigation and if necessary to contact you for further information that you may hold in relation to the criminal investigation.

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 ‘processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation’.  All activities performed by KCC Trading Standards are done so to fulfil its official functions and meet legal requirements under legislation.

In addition, for some tasks, we rely on Article 6(1)(e) as the lawful basis on which we collect and use your personal data ie ‘processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller’ for ‘the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties’.

We rely on Article 9(2)(g) as the lawful basis on which we collect and use your special categories of personal data, namely that ‘processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest; for preventing or detecting unlawful acts or for protecting the public against dishonesty for any details received as part of a complaint or regulatory requirements for details shared with the appropriate bodies (Part 2 Schedule 1 DPA 18).

We might occasionally need to rely Article 9(2)(f) as the lawful basis on which we collect and use your special categories of personal data, namely that ‘processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims’.

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.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will hold your personal information for six years from the conclusion of the investigation and/or formal proceedings that may take place. All personal information is held securely, and once it is no longer needed, is securely destroyed.

Who we share your personal information with

  • We do not routinely share your information and sharing will be where it is necessary to do so.
  • Your personal information will not be routinely shared outside of the KCC Public Protection Group, unless there is a legal obligation to do so.
  • Within the Public Protection Group, your details may be shared with other teams who support our service and who require your personal information to carry out their statutory roles

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. 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.

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.