Trading Standards - Privacy notices

Last updated: 08 June 2021

The following privacy notice applies to the Trading Standards Service provided by Warwickshire County Council. It should be read in addition to the council’s overall Customer Privacy Notice.

Warwickshire County Council Trading Standards is responsible for the creation and maintenance of a fair and safe trading environment, supporting the growth of legitimate businesses and, protecting consumers. This includes:

• To monitor and promote compliance with Trading Standards legislation in line with our Enforcement policy,
• For the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties issued under Trading standards law (Consumer Protection Legislation),
• To investigate complaints,
• To undertake inspections and testing,
• To provide advice to businesses,
• To register and licence activities where required by law, for example, explosives, petroleum, and animal feed hygiene,
• To provide services to the trade and public such as the “Buy With Confidence” or “No Rogue Traders Here” schemes which promote a fair trading environment,
• To check the effectiveness of our own activities and consult on priorities we should apply to achieving our public duties,
• For health and safety purposes.

• Name,
• Contact information such as address, email, telephone number
• Date of birth,
• Reference numbers
• Financial details,
• Family details,
• Employment details,
• Lifestyle and social circumstances,
• Persons appearance and behaviour,
• Licences or permits held,
• Business activities

The lawful basis for processing personal information is:

• Compliance with a legal obligation,
• Tasks carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority

For the purposes of prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences, the services also process some sensitive (special category) information, which may include but is not limited to :

• Customer case file information (incl.complaints),
• Physical or mental health details,
• Racial or ethnic origin,
• Offences (including alleged offences),
• Criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences,
• Visual images

The lawful basis for processing this sensitive (special category) data is :

• Establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims
• Substantial public interest on basis of UK law

Occasionally, we may need to share the personal information you have given to us or we’ve collected about you with partner organisations. These include but are not limited to:

• Internal departments within Warwickshire County Council as required,
• Other enforcers and regulators such as HMRC, National Crime Agency, Department for Work & Pensions, the Illegal Money Lending Team, Insolvency Service, Environment Agency, Action Fraud and Health & Safety Executive.
• Other local authority Trading Standards and Environmental Health departments, National Trading Standards and Regional Investigations Teams.
• Central Government departments, such as the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) and Food Standards Agency (FSA).
• Police forces and Fire and Rescue Services.

We do have specific data sharing agreements in place with local agencies and sometimes the law requires that we may have to pass your details on to a third party, for example, to prevent crime.

Information will only ever be shared when it is strictly necessary to help us provide effective services and you may have the right to refuse. We will not pass it onto any other parties unless required to do so by law or in all reasonable circumstances the disclosure is fair and warranted for the purposes of processing or subject to a legal data protection exemption.

Current year plus 6 years

Please note: all stated retention periods will be subject to any legal holds imposed under the Inquiries Act 2005 that may concern the information and override standard retention.

Find out how to access your personal information.

You may be entitled to rectification, restriction, objection, and erasure of your personal information depending on the service provision and the lawful basis. Contact us by email at: tradingstandards@warwickshire.gov.uk

• More general information on how we process your information including contact details for the Data Protection Officer and if you have a complaint about your information rights.