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Active Travel Fund Scheme Survey privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and it was last updated on 26 March 2024.

Kent County Council 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 (KCC) 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. KCC Active Travel are delivering a number of schemes funded by Active Travel England through the Active Travel Fund. As part of the funding agreement the schemes must be evaluated. The evaluation includes collecting primary data in the form of surveys and public questionnaires. This is to understand users experience of the routes, including their views on safety, health benefit, barriers to walking, cycling, running and jogging in future, the environment and choice of transport mode.

Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

Personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

In the course of completing a transport user experience questionnaire, we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:

  • Name.
  • Postcode.
  • Age band (for example, 18 to 24, 24 to 34).
  • Gender.

We also collect the following ‘special category data’ (personal data which is more sensitive and is treated with extra care and protection) when you provide it to us:

  • Race.
  • Physical or mental health.

We also obtain non-personal information, from other sources, as follows:

  • Main purpose of your journey.
  • Where you are travelling to.
  • Your mode of travel.
  • Your frequency of travel.
  • Your views on improvements to infrastructure.
  • Your travel experience.

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

  • understand users' experience of travelling
  • understand your views on safety, health benefit, barriers to cycling, walking, jogging and running in future, the environment and choice of transport mode
  • improve cycling with underrepresented groups, for example, women, over 65 year olds, people with disabilities, people from ethnic minority groups and people at risk of deprivation.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

We rely on Article 6(1)(a) – the data subject has given clear consent as the lawful basis on which we collect and use your personal data.

We rely on Article 9(2)(a) the individual has given explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes as the lawful basis on which we collect and use your special categories of personal data.*

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

  • 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.

The provision of name, postcode, age band (for example, 18 to 24, 24 to 34), gender, race and physical or mental health is required from you to enable us to:

  • understand users experience of travelling
  • understand your views on safety, health benefit, barriers to cycling, walking, jogging and running in future, the environment and choice of transport mode
  • improve cycling with underrepresented groups, for example, women, over 65 year olds, people with disabilities, people from ethnic minority groups and people at risk of deprivation.

As we have a consensual basis for collecting your personal data if you do not provide name, postcode, age band (for example, 18 to 24, 24 to 34), gender, race and physical or mental health we may not be able to:

  • understand users experience of travelling
  • understand views on safety, health benefit, barriers to cycling, walking, jogging and running in future, the environment and choice of transport mode
  • improve cycling with underrepresented groups i.e. women, over 65 year olds, people with disabilities, people from ethnic minority groups and people at risk of deprivation.

How long your personal data will be kept

The questionnaire answers are collected by KCC online via our website and separately via face-to-face questionnaires carried out by our third party suppliers Lake Market Research.

Lake Market Research will send their questionnaire answers to KCC who will analyse the face-to-face answers and online answers and create an anonymised summary report. Read Lake Market Research's privacy notice.

We will hold your personal information for:

  • KCC will hold your personal information for 5 years for purposes of post project monitoring and evaluation (as per KCC Retention Schedule).
  • Lake Market Research will hold your personal information for 2 years for the purposes of answering any queries from KCC regarding the data validation.

Who we share your personal information with

We routinely share name, postcode, age band (for example, 18 to 24, 24 to 34), gender, race and physical or mental health with Kent Analytics and KCC Road Safety Intelligence. This data will be used as a dimension for analysis for example, to determine responses from a particular group (such as, women). Your personal information will be grouped together with other customers' responses, not individually, and used to create a non-personal anonymised aggregated summary report of questionnaire findings and trends, for example X% of respondents to the questionnaire live in Ashford, are women, are over 65 years old and who cycle to work daily as this saves money.

We have a data processing agreement in place with Lake Market Research who process your data on our behalf. 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 UK 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)
  • make a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office.

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 you 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. Your request may delay or prevent us delivering a service to you.

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

If you would like to exercise a right, 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 emailing activetravel@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

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.

UK 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.