Licensing privacy notice

This privacy notice explains what information the council needs in order to deliver licensing services.

In order to provide these services, it is necessary for the council to collect, store and process personal data relating to complainants, business and property owners, landlords, taxi drivers and anyone else connected with a report. Safeguards are in place to ensure that this data is kept secure and the privacy of individuals is protected.

This privacy notice should be read alongside the council’s main privacy notice.

Who is responsible for your information?

Chesterfield Borough Council is the data controller for the personal information collected, unless stated otherwise.

How is your information collected?

As part of the regulation and licensing processes, the council may collect information about you in a number of ways, these could include:

  • information you provide to us
  • information created about you by an enforcement officer (for example the officer’s PACE notebook entry on your behaviour and interaction with them)
  • information shared with us by another council team (for example the housing team)
  • information shared with us by another regulatory or enforcement agency (for example the police or the fire service), by another local authority, by a health or social care professional or organisation, or by another licensing authority
  • information we receive from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
  • information provided to us by a member of the public
  • information shared with us by a government department or executive agency
  • the results of a data matching exercise like the National Fraud Initiative
  • information collected from surveillance cameras

Purposes of processing your personal data

We need to process your personal information in order to issue licences and enforce licensing regulations. This includes:

  • processing licence applications, including ensuring that you are a fit and proper person to hold a licence
  • managing licence renewals and fees
  • managing licence refusals and revocations
  • inspections of premises or vehicles
  • investigating complaints
  • licensing enforcement and prosecution where necessary) 

We need to capture and process information about business owners and license holders, the individuals who report concerns to us, along with details of the subject of the concern.  When doing an investigation or inspection, we may also need to capture information about landowners, building owners, landlords and any witnesses or other related individuals.

License holder information may also be used for the detection and prevention of crime and fraud.

Categories of data and lawful basis

Personal data

The information we hold about you will be dependent on the kind of licence you hold or are applying for. We may need to process some or all of the following categories of personal information:

  • contact details
  • age
  • national insurance number
  • details of any enquiries or complaints you have made
  • details of the kind of licence you hold
  • information about your vehicle (taxi drivers)
  • information about your premises (for business licences)
  • your eligibility to remain and/or work in the UK
  • criminal convictions or allegations
  • health details
  • information about risks or vulnerabilities
  • details about why a licence was refused or revoked

Under data protection legislation, processing of this data is allowed because it is for a task in the public interest and in the exercise of our official authority. 

Where we process special category (sensitive) personal information, our lawful basis for processing is that it is for reasons of substantial public interest. There may also be situations where we process special category data because we have the explicit consent of the individual.

Legislation

The council’s statutory duty to carry out this processing is created from the following pieces of legislation (this list is not exhaustive):

  • Licensing Act 2003

Who we share your personal data with

As part of an investigation or enforcement action, we may have to share information with:

  • other service areas at Chesterfield Borough Council and our councillors
  • Police
  • Derbyshire County Council and other local authorities
  • health and social care services
  • regulatory agencies and industry specialists 

Some enforcement actions are shared with the public as a press release. 

If your taxi licence is refused or revoked, we will add your name and the status of your licence to the National Anti-Fraud Network (NAFN) database. This is accessible by all licensing authorities signed up to the scheme. The details of why your licence was refused or revoked will not be added, but we may choose to provide this information directly to another licensing authority if requested. 

We are legally required to make some registers available to the public eg. the list of registered taxi drivers or private hire vehicles. We are also required by the Air Quality (Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles Database) (England and Wales) Regulations 2019 to share this information with DEFRA.

We are required to share data about some license holders with the Cabinet Office as part of a national data matching exercise to prevent and detect fraud. For more details, please see our National Fraud Initiative privacy notice, and the Cabinet Office privacy notice

We are legally required to make some registers available to the public eg. the list of registered taxi drivers or private hire vehicles

Further information

Please get in touch if you would like more information about how the council processes your personal data: