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Breast pump loans privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and was last updated in March 2025.

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 (DPA 2018). We are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information. Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

Our Family Hubs offer loans of breast pumps for parents and guardians receiving feeding support from a health or social professional, or voluntary organisation.

Personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

In the course of loaning a breast pump, we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:

  • parent or guardian’s details (name, date of birth, address, telephone number, email address)
  • baby’s name and date of birth
  • reasons that a breast pump is required
  • details of any feeding support being received.

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:

  • health data (if this is included or implied in the reason a pump is required).

We may also receive referrals from professionals on a parent or guardian’s behalf. In the event of a third party referral, in addition to the above, we also process the following information:

  • professional’s name, role and organisation
  • professional’s contact details (telephone number and email).

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

  • confirm eligibility for a breast pump loan
  • arrange the collection of a breast pump from a local Family Hub
  • maintain a record of the whereabouts of KCC owned breast pumps.

We do not use automated decision making or profiling in relation to whether a parent or guardian is eligible to be loaned a breast pump. Eligibility decisions are made based on each parent or guardian’s individual circumstances.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

We collect and use your personal information to carry out tasks as part of a contract with you. We rely on the following lawful bases under UK GDPR:

  • Article 6(1)(b) – processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party, or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract.

When we collect or share special category personal data, we rely upon the following lawful bases under UK GDPR:

  • Article 9(2)(h) - Health or social care.

We rely on the health or social care condition in the Data Protection Act 2018 to process your special category data.

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

  • We have an Appropriate Policy Document in place when using your special category data.
  • This policy is retained throughout the time we use your data and for 6 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 any reasons for deviating from the periods in our retention schedule.

The provision of the information described within this privacy notice is the minimum necessary information required to enable us to loan a breast pump. If this information is not provided, we may not be able to fulfil this service.

How long your personal data will be kept

We hold personal information securely and retain it from the child’s date of birth until they reach the age of 25, after which the information is made inaccessible to system users or securely destroyed.

Personal data will be held on the register of KCC-owned breast pumps for up to 12 months from the date of referral, after which time the borrower’s details will be deleted from the register.

Who we share your personal information with

  • Teams within KCC working to improve outcomes for children and young people.

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

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. 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 Commissioner's Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under UKGDPR.

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 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

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.