Highways fault reporting, enquiries, complaints and recharges privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and it was last updated on 2 September 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 and we are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information for the purposes of those laws. Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

The personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

In the course of offering services to you via the Highways and Transportation fault reporting and enquiry form, or these same services via email, application form, letter, verbally, or via a member of staff in KCC, we collect your personal information from either you or 3rd parties.

We may collect the following types of personal information from you:

contact details (for example, name, postal address, email address and telephone number)
proof of your validity to drive a vehicle (for example, driving licence number and type of driving licence such as EU, UK or other)
vehicle information (for example, vehicle registration number, colour of vehicle and type of vehicle)
driver details (for example, name, postal address, email address and telephone number, of any persons whose vehicles are involved in an accident)
photo images or video recordings (for example, showing damage to a vehicle, property or highways asset such as street light, road, pavement, crash barrier)
location details (for example, road or street where damage to a vehicle, property or highways asset has occurred)
named 3rd parties (for example, contractors, sub-contractors, developer or utility companies)

We may also collect the following personal information from other 3rd party sources:

CCTV or video footage (for example, from members of the public who send this to us)
insurance information from either Kent Police or the askMID secure website

Our fault reporting website and mobile version of the website

Statistics regarding the usage of the fault reporting website is collected using ‘Google Analytics’, however no personal data is collected.

For more information on cookies and related technologies used on our fault reporting website, and how to disable them read our cookie policy.

When you use the mobile version of our website, this will create a temporary session cookie only which helps you to navigate the app. This temporary cookie is then destroyed as soon as you close the browser itself.

From time to time we may run user studies to help us understand more about how people are using our fault reporting website. We use special software (called HotJar) to help us do this - more information can be found in our Cookie Policy. We have set HotJar up to hide personal information you submit but some parts may remain readable (for example a description of the problem you are reporting and the location of the problem). We use this information to help us understand how people use the website so that we can improve it for everyone.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

We may need to use some information about you to:

deliver services and support to you
carry out emergency works
recover costs due to damage to the highway asset or enforcement duties
investigate insurance claims
understand how you interact with the highways online fault reporting website
train and manage the employment of our workers who deliver those services
keep track of spending on services
check the quality of services
help with research and planning of new services
investigate an enquiry or complaint
contact you regarding an enquiry or complaint
contact you regarding a change in service or inform you of a new service relevant to you.

If you do not provide your personal information we will or may be unable to:

clarify with you the exact location or nature of your fault or enquiry, should we have a query regarding this or if there is insufficient information to resolve a fault or enquiry
book you onto a driver improvement course
recoup the costs and carry out repairs to the highway assets due to damage to the highway or enforcement action.
improve our services and levels of customer service
investigate an enquiry or complaint
contact you regarding an enquiry or complaint
contact you regarding changes to a service or to inform you of a new service relevant to you.

To be able to process your personal information we need to demonstrate that we have a lawful basis for doing so. The table below details some of our reasons for processing data and their lawful basis.

Purpose/activity	Type of data	Lawful basis for processing including the basis of any legitimate interest grounds
To investigate the reported fault, enquiry or complaint To accurately locate your reported fault To understand clearly the nature of the fault, enquiry or complaint To contact you to inform you that your enquiry has been resolved	Contact details	Necessary for the performance of a public task in the public interest
Your contact details may be passed onto a 3rd party supplier or contractor for the purposes of contacting you to accurately locate where emergency works maybe required, understand clearly the nature of this emergency or to inform you that this emergency has been resolved	Contact details	Necessary to comply with a legal obligation (Highways Act 1980)
To understand (within a short period of time) after your reported fault or enquiry has been resolved, as to what level of customer service you experienced.	Contact details	Necessary for the performance of a public task in the public interest
To resolve an enquiry regarding a potential future booking or existing booking for a driver improvement course, where this has not been resolved by the contact centre You can also read our driver improvement course privacy notice	Contact details Validity to drive a vehicle	Performance of a contract (with the data subject attending a driver improvement course)
To investigate an insurance claim where damage to a vehicle, property or highways asset has occurred	Contact details Vehicle information Driver details Images or video recordings Location details Named 3rd parties	Necessary for the performance of a public task in the public interest Necessary to comply with a legal obligation (Highways Act 1980) to investigate and reclaim costs due to damage to the highway asset We don't collect any criminal offence information
To investigate an enforcement action regarding a land owner	Contact Images or video recordings Location details	Necessary for the performance of a public task in the public interest Necessary to comply with a legal obligation (Highways Act 1980) to recoup costs due to enforcement action taken by us We don't collect any criminal offence information

How long your personal data will be kept

We will hold your personal information and information provided to us by third-parties securely and retain it for 6 years in accordance with our retention schedule.

Who we share your personal information with

Who we share your personal information with	Purpose/Activity
KCC Contact centre	To redirect any reported faults, complaints or enquiries to the appropriate internal team, outside organisation or contractor/supplier for the purposes of investigating and resolving their fault, complaint or enquiry To understand (within a short period of time) after your reported fault or enquiry has been resolved, as to what level of customer service you experienced
KCC teams who deal with matters relating to: highway operations and asset management highway safety inspections street Lighting roads and pavements drainage highway bridges, culverts and structures highway grass verges and highway trees traffic lights and intelligent traffic systems traffic and the highway network developments agreements transport planning and development schemes planning and delivery road safety and casualty reduction traffic management major highway projects and programmes public transport highway business, commissioning, contracts and commercial functions	To investigate the reported fault, enquiry or complaint To accurately locate your reported fault To understand clearly the nature of the fault, enquiry or complaint To contact you to inform you that your enquiry has been resolved
KCC teams who deal with matters relating to emergencies	To carry out emergency works on the highway
KCC teams who deal with matters relating to driver improvement courses	To resolve an enquiry regarding a potential future booking or existing booking for a driver improvement course, where this has not been resolved by the contact centre
KCC teams who deal with matters relating to: insurance claims investigations relating to reclaiming of damages to the highway assets 3rd parties external to KCC: insurance companies loss adjustors solicitors	To investigate an insurance claim where damage to a vehicle, property or highways asset has occurred To investigate an enforcement action regarding a land owner
KCC teams not mentioned in the above list Other local authorities or public bodies One of our 3rd party suppliers or contractors	To investigate the reported fault, enquiry or complaint To accurately locate your reported fault To understand clearly the nature of the fault, enquiry or complaint To contact you to inform you that your enquiry has been resolved To obtain customer feedback as to your level of satisfaction with our service

Who we share your personal information with

Purpose/Activity

KCC

Contact centre

To redirect any reported faults, complaints or enquiries to the appropriate internal team, outside organisation or contractor/supplier for the purposes of investigating and resolving their fault, complaint or enquiry

To understand (within a short period of time) after your reported fault or enquiry has been resolved, as to what level of customer service you experienced

KCC teams who deal with matters relating to:

highway operations and asset management
highway safety inspections
street Lighting
roads and pavements
drainage
highway bridges, culverts and structures
highway grass verges and highway trees
traffic lights and intelligent traffic systems
traffic and the highway network
developments agreements
transport planning and development
schemes planning and delivery
road safety and casualty reduction
traffic management
major highway projects and programmes
public transport
highway business, commissioning, contracts and commercial functions

To investigate the reported fault, enquiry or complaint

To accurately locate your reported fault

To understand clearly the nature of the fault, enquiry or complaint

To contact you to inform you that your enquiry has been resolved

KCC teams who deal with matters relating to emergencies

To carry out emergency works on the highway

KCC teams who deal with matters relating to driver improvement courses

To resolve an enquiry regarding a potential future booking or existing booking for a driver improvement course, where this has not been resolved by the contact centre

KCC teams who deal with matters relating to:

insurance claims
investigations relating to reclaiming of damages to the highway assets

3rd parties external to KCC:

insurance companies
loss adjustors
solicitors

To investigate an insurance claim where damage to a vehicle, property or highways asset has occurred

To investigate an enforcement action regarding a land owner

KCC teams not mentioned in the above list

Other local authorities or public bodies

One of our 3rd party suppliers or contractors

To investigate the reported fault, enquiry or complaint

To accurately locate your reported fault

To understand clearly the nature of the fault, enquiry or complaint

To contact you to inform you that your enquiry has been resolved

To obtain customer feedback as to your level of satisfaction with our service

We have data processing agreements in place with third party suppliers who process your data on our behalf.

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

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)
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 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 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.

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.

The United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner who may be contacted on 03031 231113.

For further information, read our privacy statement.