Trading Standards privacy notice

Our core data protection obligations and commitments are set out in the Council’s primary privacy notice.

This notice provides additional privacy information for:

• Businesses; and

• Members of the public 

Purpose(s)

We collect, or obtain your personal information for the following purpose(s):

  • The prevention and detection of crime 
  • To satisfy the statutory obligations of the local authority 
  • On occasions, to contact a trader on behalf of a trader to seek a resolution to a dispute
  • To confirm identity of users as we are a local authority service operating within geographical boundaries 
  • To allow data analysis to enable an intelligence led service with priorities identified locally  
  • To allow intelligence sharing with enforcement partners 
  • To allow us to communicate with service users

We only use these details to provide the service requested or for other closely related services such as the provision of discretionary memorial information available within the service which may be of interest to you.

Categories of personal data

In order to carry out these purposes we collect and obtain:

  • Names
  • Address
  • Contact Telephone Numbers and Email
  • Personal contact details, such as names (including previous names), title, addresses, telephone numbers and personal email addresses, and social media accounts
  • Personal demographics including date of birth and gender
  • Other details, such as vehicle and property ownership and bank details

We may also process Special Category data which includes:

  • Offences (including alleged offences), criminal proceedings / investigations, outcomes and sentences.

Legal basis for processing

The legal basis for processing your personal information is:

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, including The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008; Trade Marks Act 1994; Consumer Protection Act 1987; Enterprise Act 2002; Consumer Rights Act 2015  

A full list of Trading Standards legislation is available on request.  

In addition the Local Government Act 2000, section 2 states that every local authority is to have power to do anything which it considers is likely to achieve any one or more of the following objectives:  

(a) The promotion or improvement of the economic well-being of their area,

(b) The promotion or improvement of the social well-being of their area.

Consequences if information is not provided

If you do not provide certain information when requested, we may be restricted in the prevention and detection of crime.

Information sharing/recipients We may share personal information about you with the following types of organisations:

  • Enforcement agencies and partners including HMRC
  • National Crime Agency
  • DWP
  • Police
  • Illegal Money Lending Team
  • Insolvency Service
  • Environment Agency
  • Licensing
  • Action Fraud
  • Environmental Health
  • Council Tax
  • Legal Department and Trade Associations
  • Citizens Advice Consumer Service
  • National Trading Standards and Regional Investigations Teams 
  • Local Authority Trading Standards Departments
  • Central Government Departments 
  • Traders subject of a complaint - but only where the consumer has expressly given their consent 
  • As well as information collected directly from you, we also obtain or receive information from:
  • The police and other law enforcement agencies
  • Members of the public reporting issues to us

Automated decisions

All the decisions we make about you involve human intervention and are not automated.

Data retention/criteria

We will only keep your personal information for as long as the law specifies or, where the law does not specify this, for the length of time determined by our business requirements.

Rights of individuals

Information about:

  • exercising your rights
  • contacting our Data Protection Officer
  • raising a concern with us, or
  • making a complaint to the Information Commissioner is accessible in our guide on exercising your rights, found on the Council’s data protection internet page.

If you wish to complain to the Information Commissioner the contact details are:

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

Updates (notices)

We may update or revise this Privacy Notice at any time so please refer back to this page for the most up-to-date version.

This page was last modified: Wednesday 20 May 2020 10:48