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Building Control privacy notice

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This web page explains how information about you will be held and processed by BCP Council Building Control service.

You can also find out about the General Data Protection Regulations and Data Protection Act 2018 and your rights on our privacy page.

It contains information about:

  • who we are
  • why we collect your personal information
  • the legal basis for using your information
  • who we may share your information with
  • how you can access the information we hold about you
  • how long we keep information about you
  • further information and Data Protection Officer.

Who we are

BCP Council will be the Data Controller for the personal information you provide. Personal information can be anything that identifies and relates to a living person.

This could be your name and contact details. As the Data Controller BCP Council will use your information to provide you with our services.

Why we collect your personal information

We will collect enough personal information in order to provide you with services for the following purposes.

  • processing Building Regulation applications and inspections
  • dealing with demolition notifications and notices
  • dealing with defective and dangerous structures
  • issuing Safety Certificates for designated sports grounds
  • providing building control related advice and guidance
  • dealing with general enquiries, comments or complaints.

We are not permitted to collect information we do not need or will not use. This document covers information you have provided direct to the council and information which has been shared with us by other organisations.

If we don’t need your personal information we will either keep your details anonymous, if we already have it for another service or we won’t ask you for it. If we use your personal information for research or analysis, we will always keep your details anonymous or use a fake name.

We don’t sell your personal information to anyone else.

The legal basis for using your information

According to the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, we must have a reason to collect and use your information.

This will be:

  • to deliver services and support you
  • to enable us to manage the services we provide
  • to train and manage our workers who deliver those services
  • to investigate any worries or complaints you may have about our goods or services
  • to check the quality of our goods and services
  • to help with research and planning of new services.

There are legal reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information. For this service:

  • you have a contract or other agreement with us
  • there is a legal requirement on the council e.g. the Building Act 1984, Building Regulations 2010 as amended and the Safety at Sports Ground Act 1975.
  • to ensure that relevant parties are contacted in respect of statutory Notices etc. (Building Act 1984)
  • there is a public task, the processing is necessary for us to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions and the task or function has a clear basis in law.

Our service also needs to use sensitive personal data also called "special category data" which requires more protection to keep it safe. This is often information you would not want to be widely known and is very personal to you. It includes:

  • physical or mental health.

We will take extra care of this data. The legal reason for us to collect and use this personal information is:

  • to determine whether the applicant for Building Regulations purposes is applicable for an exemption to charges. Once determined a written record of the receipt of the justification will be retained, but the original documents will be destroyed.

Who we may share your information with

We use a range of organisations to either store personal information or to help deliver our services to you. Sometimes we have a legal duty to provide your personal information to other organisations, for example the court service or HMRC.

We may also share your personal information with these organisations:

  • Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Services
  • Wessex Water
  • Southern Gas Networks
  • Police Authorities
  • Electricity and Gas Supply Companies
  • Sports Ground Safety Authority
  • other council departments such as Planning, Revenue, Housing, Legal
  • Other Local Authorities when there is a cross-boundary working arrangement in place to deliver Building Control services.

Your information will not be disclosed to any other organisations, except where we are required and allowed to by law.

We may seek your consent if we are able to offer additional services which we believe are of benefit to you. This will be clearly communicated to you. We will only share your details with these organisations if we have your consent. We will not share your information otherwise.

Accessing the information we hold about you

You have the right to request, in writing, details of the information that is held about you and also the right to access a copy of the information. This may be by the Council providing copies of documents or by inviting you to view the records at one of its offices, if appropriate.

BCP Council will not charge a fee to access your information and sometimes there may be information that we are not allowed to show you, such as:

  • legal information or advice
  • crime prevention and detection records
  • information that we believe may be harmful to you and your well-being
  • details about or provided by other people. This is called third party information (For example, information from the Police or Department for Work & Pensions).

You may also ask us to:

  • stop processing your information if this causes or might cause damage or distress
  • stop processing your information for direct marketing
  • make decisions about you using your information by automated means (For example, using computers to decide on an entitlement)
  • amend any of your data which you feel is inaccurate. You can also ask for information to be blocked, erased or destroyed
  • transfer your information electronically to another service provider
  • consider a claim for compensation for any damages caused by a breach of the Data Protection regulations.

If you give consent for us to use your information, you may withdraw this at any time. However, this may affect our ability to continue to provide you with a service.

How long we keep information about you

Generally, we retain information relating to Building Regulations for 15 years, after the completion of a project. However, there is no set time period to keep relevant information and any future retention policy may supersede this.

Further information

If you have a concern about how we are using your information please contact us in the first instance using the address below:

Email: bcbournemouth@bcpcouncil.gov.uk.

Building Control
Customer Services
BCP Council Civic Centre
Bourne Avenue
Bournemouth
BH2 6DY

Data Protection Officer

The Data Protection Officer role for BCP Council is held by the:

Team Leader
Contracts, Commercial and Information Governance.

If you have any queries or concerns about how your personal information please contact us using our general enquiries form first, or by writing to or visiting us at:

information.governance@bcpcouncil.gov.uk

Information Commissioner

For further information about Information Rights legislation, please contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk or telephone: 0303 123 1113.

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