Privacy Notices - Highways operations Privacy Notice

You need to be aware of this Privacy Notice if you making a report of a problem with or on the highway. We are committed to being transparent about how we collect and use all personal data collected and meeting our data protection obligations.

A Privacy Notice is a statement issued by an organisation which explains how personal and confidential data about individuals is collected, used and shared.

Swindon Borough Council will act as a “Data Controller” for any personal data that you provide to us. We will ensure that the data given to us is processed in line with our Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 18) and the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

To find out more about Swindon Borough Council’s data protection policies please contact our Data Protection Officer by email at dataprotection@swindon.gov.uk or in writing to Data Protection Officer, Civic Offices, Euclid Street, Swindon, Wiltshire, SN1 2JH.

Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. The processing of data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (the “GDPR”).

We record your name and a method of contacting you, i.e. email address and/or telephone number.

Swindon Borough Council complies with its obligations under the GDPR by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.

We may need to use some information about you: 

• to deliver services and support to you
• to manage those services we provide to you
• to train and manage the employment of our workers who deliver those services
• to help investigate any worries or complaints you have about your services

There are a number of legal, legitimate or lawful reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information. In the case of reporting an issue with the highway it is necessary to perform our statutory duties.

We do not share your personal information.

We will do what we can to make sure we hold records about you (on paper and electronically) in a secure way, and we will only make them available to those who have a right to see them.

Examples of our security include: 

• Controlling access to systems and networks allows us to stop people who are not allowed to view your personal information from getting access to it.
• Training for our staff allows us to make them aware of how to handle information and how and when to report when something goes wrong.
• Regular testing of our technology and ways of working including keeping up to date on the latest security updates (commonly called patches).

We keep information in relation to reports of issues with the highway for seven years.

The law gives you a number of rights to control what personal information is used by us and how it is used by us. You can ask for access to the information we hold on you and we would normally expect to share what we record about you with you whenever we assess your needs or provide you with services.

However, you also have the right to ask for a copy of all the information we have about you and the services you receive from us. When we receive a request from you in writing, we must give you access to everything we have recorded about you, however, we cannot let you see any parts of your records that contain:  

• confidential information about other people
• data a professional thinks will cause serious harm to you or someone else’s physical or mental wellbeing; or
• if we think that giving you the information may stop us from preventing or detecting a crime.

This applies to personal information that is in both paper and electronic records. If you ask us, we will also let others see your record (except if one of the points above applies).

If you cannot ask for your records in writing, we will make sure there are other ways that you can.

If you have any queries about access to your information contact dataprotection@swindon.gov.uk.

In the event that you wish to complain about the way that your personal data has been handled by Swindon Borough Council, you should write to the Data Protection Officer and clearly outline your case. Your complaint will then be investigated in accordance with our customer complaint procedure.

If you remain dissatisfied with the way your personal data has been handled, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. You may refer the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office whose contact details are below:

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

Email: casework@ico.org.uk

This website also contains information on data protection and your rights and remedies.

You are under no statutory obligation to provide personal data to Swindon Borough Council upon reporting an issue with the highway. However, if you do not provide the data, we will not be able to request further information regarding the issue should it be required.

A yearly audit will take place on personal data to ensure that we remain legally compliant in accordance with current data protection legislation.

You are viewing the Privacy Notice for reporting a problem with the highway.

Read the main Privacy Notice