Under data protection legislation, you have certain rights (listed below) in regard to your personal information. Which lawful basis we rely on may affect which rights apply. You can find out more about your data protection rights and the exemptions which may apply on the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website.
1) Your right to be informed
When directly collecting your personal information, we will explain exactly what will happen to it using a privacy notice. If we collect personal information about you from another organisation (indirectly), we will provide you with similar information, as well as explaining where we got your information from.
2) Your right to access
You can request a copy of all, or part of, the personal information we hold about you by submitting a Subject Access Request (SAR).
You will need to provide enough detail about yourself to enable us to identify your personal information, such as your name, address and what contact you have had with the Service. You will also need to provide us with a description of the information you are looking for to enable us to locate it. Please be as specific as you can to assist our search.
We may also require proof of your identity. Generally, a good quality copy of your driving licence, birth certificate or passport will be accepted. Copies of your proof of identification will be destroyed once the SAR has been completed.
If you would like to know what information (if any) we hold about you, you can send your request to us using the contact details at the bottom of this notice. You may wish to use the Subject Access Form to help make your request.
Will there be a charge?
Information requested as a SAR will be provided free of charge (unless you are asking for additional copies of information previously supplied, or we have good grounds to consider the requests unfounded or unnecessary).
How long will it take?
We will acknowledge your request upon your receipt. Once proof of ID and any fee has been received, you will receive the information requested within one month.
However, if your request is complex or numerous requests have been made, we may be required to extend this to a maximum time of three months. If this is the case, we will contact you within one month of receiving your request to notify you and provide a full explanation.
What will I receive?
You have the right to all of your own personal information that we hold. However, there are some exemptions which we will explain if relevant.
Third party requests
Requests made on your behalf (e.g. by a solicitor, relative or friend) will require written evidence of their authority to make such a request and must satisfy us that they are entitled to do so.
We would also need to be satisfied that you understand what information may be disclosed to someone acting on your behalf. In some circumstances, we may send the information direct to you.
3) Your right to rectification
If you discover that the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right to instruct us to correct it and we must comply with this instruction within one month.
You must be clear about exactly what you believe is inaccurate and how we must correct it, providing evidence of the inaccuracies where available.
We will confirm that we have corrected your personal information. However, if we consider that your information does not need to be corrected, we will explain why. Either way, we will respond to your request within one month (or up to three months for complex requests).
4) Your right to erasure
The right to erasure gives you the option to request the deletion or removal of your personal information where there is no reason for us to continue to use it.
The right is not absolute and we will not delete personal information which we still need to fulfil our official responsibilities as a Fire and Rescue Service. We may notify you if this is the case.
5) Your right to restriction
You have the right to request that we restrict any processing of your personal information until any errors have been rectified. In this situation, the right to restrict is not stand-alone and can be applied in tandem with the right to rectification.
The right to restriction can also be applied in other situations. If you are concerned that we may be processing information about you, in a manner that isn’t fair and lawful, you can request that processing is restricted while you pursue a complaint / determine our condition for processing.
We will consider your request and reply within one month (or three months for complex cases) with the outcome.
6) Right to portability
The right to data portability is very unlikely to apply to information held by the Fire and Rescue Service. However, we will consider such requests and respond within one month.
7) Your right to object
You have the right to object to us processing your personal information for the purposes we consider to be in the public interest whilst exercising our official authority as a Fire and Rescue Service.
If you do raise an objection we will stop using your personal information, unless we are able to prove overriding legitimate grounds for doing so.
8) Rights relating to automated decision making
You have a right to not be evaluated on the basis of automated processing and decisions. This is to ensure that any potentially damaging decisions are not made about you without appropriate human intervention. Automated processing includes profiling, which is when different types of information are brought together to build a picture of a person’s personality, behaviour or habits.
You can object to automated decision-making, including profiling, if that decision has a significant or legal effect on you. You will need to write to us, explaining your objection.
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