Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service (DWFRS) is committed to protecting your personal information when you use our services. This privacy notice outlines how we use information about you, how we keep that information safe and what your data protection rights are. We will continually review and update this privacy notice to reflect changes in our services and feedback from service users, as well as to comply with changes in the law.
Please note that in addition to this overarching notice, there are a number of additional privacy notices for specific data processing activities.
The information that we may collect about you
To deliver our services effectively we may need to collect and process personal information about you. The types of personal information that we may collect include:
Name, address, other contact details (such as email and phone numbers), gender, marital status, date and place of birth, nationality, employer, job title and employment history, family details
Certain categories of personal information that we may collect have additional protection. The categories of this type of information are:
Racial or ethnic origin, political opinions; religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership status, genetic and biometric, health, sex life or sexual orientation
Why we collect your personal information
We need to collect and process information about you, in order to:
- undertake prevention, protection and emergency services to the communities that we serve, including, firefighting and emergency services and managing responses to incidents
- maintaining our own records and accounts and the management of fire service assets
- to keep our buildings and vehicles safe and to prevent and detect crime
- carrying out Safe and Well visits
- for employment and staff training purposes
- help us to build up a picture of how we are performing at delivering services to you and what services the people of Dorset and Wiltshire need
- investigating any concerns or complaints about our services
- research and planning of new services
- make sure we meet our statutory obligations
Where we collect your personal information from
We might collect your personal information from:
- you
- your family members, your representative, your employer, or a member of the public concerned for your welfare
- other public bodies such as the police, ambulance service, local councils and the NHS
- other organisations to whom you have given permission to share your information.
Lawful basis for processing your personal information
We have the right to process your personal information if at least one of the following applies:
Consent – we have permission from the person whose information we’re collecting or using, after we provided them with a privacy notice to make an informed choice.
Contract – to enter into or carry out a contract.
Compliance with a legal obligation –to comply with the law.
Legitimate interest – we’re collecting or using the information because it benefits the person, our organisation or someone else, without causing an undue risk of harm to anyone.
Vital interests – collecting or using the information is needed when someone’s physical or mental health or wellbeing is at urgent or serious risk. This includes an urgent need for life sustaining food, water, clothing or shelter.
Public task – to carry out a task laid down in law, which the law intends to be performed by an organisation such as ours.
As a public authority, our reasons will typically be because we have a legal obligation or we are carrying out a task under our official authority, in the interest of the public.
The lawful bases that we rely on for specific processing activities are outlined in our additional privacy notices.
How we keep your personal information secure
We are committed to ensuring that your personal information is safe. To prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we put in place appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information that we hold about you. These include:
- information security awareness training for our staff
- access controls on systems
- encryption of personal information
- physical security measures in work areas
How long we keep your personal information for
We will only keep your information for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected, after which time it will be securely and permanently destroyed or anonymised for statistical and evaluation purposes.
Specific retention periods have been set in our document retention schedule and are defined in our additional privacy notices for specific activities.
Who we might share your personal information with
To ensure that we support the needs of members of our communities it is sometimes necessary for us to share some or all your information with other organisations. We only do this when necessary, or is required by law, for a clear and legitimate purpose. Generally, we only share information with another organisation where:
- Organisations who are providing services and care during emergencies
- Organisations that can provide you with advice or assistance to prevent you being injured, ill or to prevent harm from the environment
- prevent or detect crime, including the prevention of fraud
- conduct or defend a legal proceeding
- they are processing information on our behalf and we have an information sharing agreement in place
Your rights
Under data protection legislation, you have several rights, including the right to access the information an organisation holds about you. Please see Your Data, Your Rights to find out more about your rights, and how to exercise them.
Contact details for our Data Protection Officer (DPO)
You can contact our DPO if you wish to exercise any of your rights as described, have a query on how personal information is handled within our organisation or just want further information and advice.
Data Protection Officer
Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service
Five Rivers Health and Wellbeing Centre
Salisbury
Wiltshire
SP1 3NR
01722 691000
ICO registration: ZA171812
How to complain
If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us by contacting the Data Protection Officer.
If you remain unhappy with how we’ve used your information after raising a complaint with us, you can also complain to the ICO.
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
0303 123 1113
https://www.ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
Last updated
October 2024