Biodiversity - Privacy Notice

Who the council is and what the council does

Cotswold District Council is a data controller under the Data Protection Legislation as the council collects and processes personal information about you in order to provide services and meet their statutory and regulatory obligations.

This notice explains why the council asks for your personal information, how that information will be used and how you can access your records.

Any questions regarding our privacy practices should be sent to:

Data Protection Officer (DPO)
Cotswold District Council
Council Offices, Cirencester, GL7 1PX
Email: data.protection@cotswold.gov.uk
Tel: 01993 861194

Why the council needs your information and how the council uses it

As a Public Authority, operating in England, we must consider what we can do to conserve and enhance biodiversity in England. This is the strengthened ‘biodiversity duty’ that the Environment Act 2021 introduced. We must:

Consider what we can do to conserve and enhance biodiversity.
Agree policies and specific objectives.
Act to deliver our policies and achieve our objectives.

Additionally under the Environment Act 2021, all planning permissions granted in England (apart from exempt developments) will need to achieve at least a 10% biodiversity net gain from January 2024.

Biodiversity net gain (BNG) is an approach to development or land management that aims to leave the natural environment in a measurably better state than it was beforehand. In future we will be required to report what is done for biodiversity net gain on and off development sites.

We will be required to collect your personal data to allow us to undertake biodiversity work. This includes, but is not limited to:

answering any enquiries that you contact us with
monitoring and responding to biodiversity and environmental issues
working with neighbouring authorities, county council and other stakeholders (including Highways England, the Environment Agency, Natural England) on biodiversity matters
the management and monitoring of biodiversity data

The council does not sell your personal information to anyone else.

What is the legal process for collecting and processing this data

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018, the lawful base we rely on for processing this information is:

UK GDPR Article 6 (1) (e) Public Task – processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest in the exercise of official authority vested in the council.

What type of information is collected from you

Personal details, which may include:

Name
Address
Other contact details – email address and telephone number

Special categories of personal data

We will not purposely collect any special category data.

The above list is not exhaustive. The council will only ask for personal information that is appropriate to enable us to deliver our services. In some cases you can refuse to provide your details if you deem a request to be inappropriate. However, you should note that, this may impact on our ability to provide some services to you.

We collect this information by:

telephone, email, social media, writing or in person

Who your information may be shared with (internally and externally)

Your data is shared internally only with the appropriate staff where it is necessary for the performance of their roles.

Sometimes the council has a legal duty to provide your personal information to other organisations, for example the court service or HMRC.

The council may also share your personal information with government departments, agencies and third party contractors such as Highways England, the Environment Agency and Natural England.

We will not normally share your information with organisations without your consent. However the council will use the information for the purpose of performing any of its statutory duties. It will make any disclosures required by law and may also share this information with other bodies responsible for detecting/preventing fraud or auditing/administering public funds.

Your information will not be disclosed to any other organisations, except where the council is required and allowed to by law, to safeguard public safety and in risk of harm or emergency situations.

The council will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

How long the council keeps your information (retention period)

We will only retain your personal information for as long as we are required to do so by law and the purpose we collected it for.

Once your data is no longer needed it will be securely and confidentially destroyed or disposed of the data in line with retention schedules.

How the council protects your information

Your data is stored securely on our systems and accessed only by authorised officers using their own username and password created in line with pre-defined user credentials. Personal data is also held in electronic files on the council’s network drives. These are only accessible through personal logon credentials and access privileges to specific drives. Access to our council sites require a personal electronic pass to access staff only areas. The council has strict procedures for the way this is done. Any and all information about you is treated as confidential and with respect. There are also clear rules and guidance about storing, recording and sharing information which staff receive training on.

If you use your credit or debit card to make payments, the council passes your card details securely to our payment processing partner as part of the payment process. The council does this in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Security Standard and does not store the details on its website. The information you give to the council when using our online payment system will only be used for the recording of your payment.

The council will not transfer your personal data outside the EU without your consent.

The council have implemented generally accepted standards of technology and operational security in order to protect personal data from loss, misuse or unauthorised alteration or destruction.

Please note however that where you are transmitting information to us over the internet this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

The council will notify you promptly in the event of any breach of your personal data which might expose you to serious risk.

Your rights

You have the following rights under the Data Protection Legislations:

To access your personal data
To be provided with information about how your personal data is processed
To have your personal data corrected
To have your personal data erased in certain circumstances
To object to or restrict how your personal data is processed
To have your personal data transferred to yourself or to another business in certain circumstances
To be told if the council have made a mistake whilst processing your data and the council will self-report breaches to the Commissioner.

How you can access, update or correct your information

The Data Protection law gives you the right to apply for a copy of information about yourself. This is called a ‘Subject Access Request'.

If you wish to see a copy of your records you should contact the Data Protection Officer. You are entitled to receive a copy of your records free of charge, within a month.

In certain circumstances access to your records may be limited, for example, if the records you have asked for contain information relating to another person.

The accuracy of your information is important to us to be able to provide relevant services more quickly. The council is working to make our record keeping more efficient. In the meantime, if you change your address or email address, or if any of your circumstances change or any of the other information the council holds is inaccurate or out of date, please email us or write to us at:

Biodiversity Team
Cotswold District Council
Council Offices, Cirencester, GL7 1PX
Email: customer.services@cotswold.gov.uk

Further information

If you would like to know more about how the council uses your information, or if for any reason you do not wish to have your information used in any of the ways described in this privacy notice, please contact the Data Protection Officer at data.protection@cotswold.gov.uk

For more information about data protection please visit: www.cotswold.gov.uk/about-the-council/council-data-and-access-to-information/data-protection/

If you are concerned about the way the council is handling your personal information you can contact the Information Commissioner (ICO): https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

The council reserve the right to update this privacy notice from time to time by publishing a new version on our website.