Your Data and Privacy

The information that we hold enables us undertake prevention, protection and emergency services to the communities that we serve. We may also use some of the information to help us to improve our services. Examples of how we collect and use personal information include:

• Managing responses to incidents, fires and road traffic collisions
• Fire Prevention awareness, advice and guidance
• Fire investigation work
• Regulatory, licensing and enforcement actions for business fire safety
• Business fire safety advice and inspections
• Carrying out home safety visits
• Checking the quality and effectiveness of our services
• Investigating any concerns or complaints about our services
• Research and planning of new services
• Maintaining our own records and accounts
• To check that our service continues to meet it’s legal responsibilities
• Supporting and managing our staff
• CCTV on our buildings and vehicles
• Recruitment exercises

The type of information we process about individuals will vary, depending on the type of service being provided. Examples might include:

• Name and address
• Age and/or date of birth
• Contact information
• Racial or ethnic origin
• Health information
• Information about personal circumstances, such as who lives at the address
• Gender
• Language preference
• Nationality
• Education and training needs
• Employment information
• Next of kin details

However - we will only collect what we need to in order to deliver that particular service. Some examples are provided below:

When we answer a 999 call and responding to an emergency we need information such as:

• The name and contact details of the caller to communicate with them
• The address of the incident, so that we allocate resources
• Health information – for example, any mobility issues people at the property may have

To provide specific advice about safety in your home we would may need information including:

• Name, address and contact details
• Age
• Health and medical information – for example it helps us to know if anyone in the property is a smoker, whether there may be alcohol in the home and whether anyone has any medical issues that may affect their ability to leave the property in an emergency
• Gender
• Language

As a service we process information, including personal information, about the services we provide, to generate statistics. These are used to enable us to identify areas where we can improve the services we provide and/or to enable us to develop specific advice. As well as using them for your own purposes – we are also required to provide information to agencies such as Welsh Government.

Whilst we process personal data to obtain the statistical data – the actual statistics themselves are anonymous.

Information that may help us with this include:

• Addresses
• Gender
• Racial or ethnic origin
• Religious or philosophical beliefs
• Sexual orientation
• Language

Where information is requested for statistical purposes, it is optional for you to provide it (which will be explained to you at the time).

Often, the information is provided by you – for example when you contact us by telephone, fill in one of our online forms or when we visit you at home or at your place of business. Sometimes it may be provided by:

• A member of your family or a care provider
• Another public body, such the police, ambulance service, NHS or a local authority
• Other organisations or companies who have had permission from you to share your details with us.

MAWWFRS are committed to ensuring that all of our information, including personal data, is held safely.

Much of our information is recorded and held on electronic/computer systems. These are protected by security measures to prevent unauthorised access. The systems that hold personal information have higher access level controls.

This is supported by having secure work areas, as well as staff training, guidance and procedures to ensure that everyone is aware of the importance of looking after sensitive and personal data.

This combination of measures helps us to ensure that your information cannot be seen, accessed by, or disclosed to, anyone who shouldn’t see it.

In order for us to process personal data, we must have a legal basis to do so – these are defined in data protection legislation. The legal basis will differ depending on the service provided, why it is being provided and the sensitivity of the information we are collecting. The legal reasons include:

• Consent to process your personal data has been given
• The processing is necessary for us to carry out our legitimate public duties, as defined in the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004
• The processing is necessary for us to comply with a specific legal obligation – for example The Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 or the Environment and Safety Information Act 1988
• For recruitment , employment or social security reasons
• For the investigation, detection and prevention of crime
• Where the processing is necessary in the vital interest of you or any other individual(s)

The information held may be accessed by authorised MAWWFRS staff who need it to undertake their role. This may be staff across a variety of departments and locations.

We may engage the services of commercial companies to store and manage your information on our behalf, for example our IT software systems. In many cases, these companies do have the ability to access those systems and therefore may have access to any data held on those systems. However, this will only be for system maintenance and is carefully managed to minimise any risks to personal data.

There are organisations that we “employ” to provide services on our behalf, or that we work in conjunction with, who will access your personal data – for example we work with partners to deliver Home Safety Checks.

Where we work with any third party provider, they too have legal obligations to protect your information – however, MAWWFRS carry out a variety of checks and have agreements in place, where appropriate, to ensure that your data is given an adequate level of protection.

In order to fulfill our legal obligations, or in the interest of public safety, we may share your information with other organisations such as:

• the police or other law enforcement agencies
• the NHS or other health and welfare organisations
• the relevant local authority
• other partners such as Natural Resources Wales or utility companies
• insurance companies
• courts, including the coroner’s office
• financial organisations
• educational establishments
• legal advisors

You have a legal right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. Your request will be dealt with in line with Data Protection legislation.

We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate and you have the right to request we correct or remove information which you think is inaccurate.

You also have the right to ask for any personal data to be deleted – this will only where the information is inaccurate, incorrect and/or where there is no legal basis for us to retain it.

To exercise your legal rights, or if you have any queries or concerns regarding our use of personal data, please contact our data protection officer in the first instance.

Data Protection Officer
Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters
Lime Grove Avenue
Carmarthen
SA31 1SP

Email: dataprotection@mawwfire.gov.uk
Telephone: 0370 6060699

You also have the right to raise any concerns you have with the Information Commissioner, who oversees Data Protection Legislation. Further information can be found on their website - https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ or you can contact them here:

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

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

The Health Board will provide the Service with

• your name, address and telephone number, and
• details of your allocated vaccination appointment.

We need this so that we can contact you to arrange an appropriate collection time.The Health Board may also provide us with limited details regarding your health/personal circumstances, only where that may help us to provide you with the appropriate support. For example, if you have any mobility issues, that will help us decide what vehicle is best and/or that you may need assistance getting from your house to our vehicle

The Service will not collect additional information whilst providing our transport service. However, during the journey, your driver, who will be an employee of the Service, will tell you about services we can offer, such as free Home Safety Checks. If you express an interest in any of those services, the driver will pass your contact information to the relevant team within the Service, who will contact you to discuss further. You are not obliged to take up any of the services offered, but if you decide to then we will explain any other details we will collect and how those will be used.

We will not keep any information longer than is necessary for this transport service. We need to keep the data for at least 28 days, in line with requirements for Welsh Government’s Trace, Track and Protect programme, and we will not retain it any longer than 3 months. 

Your data will be securely disposed of when no longer required. Whilst we hold it, it will be accessible only to those Service staff providing the transport and a small central coordination team within the Service.

In order to collect or use personal information we must have a valid legal or lawful basis. In this case this data is processed for a task that is in the public interest, and in the interests of public health.

If you have any further questions or you are in any way concerned about how the Service is looking after your personal data, please contact the Service Data Protection Officer, Jackie Evans, whose contact details are below.

You also have a legal right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you, again, this should be addressed to the Service Data Protection Officer.

Mrs Jackie Evans - Data Protection Officer
Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters
Lime Grove Avenue
Carmarthen
SA31 1SP

Email: dataprotection@mawwfire.gov.uk
Telephone: 0370 6060699 Ext. 4435

The Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service is committed to protecting the privacy of all visitors to the web site and related web pages. The Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service do not capture or permanently store user information other than that automatically generated by the system and is used solely for evaluation and improvement. 

When asked for any personal information such as name, address, telephone number etc, the information will be used only to provide the service to you directly. Under the Data Protection Act 1998, The Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service have a legal duty to protect information collected from visitors to the web site. Certain services require the collection and process of personal information to provide efficient services to be delivered. Only the minimum required data is collected from visitors, and held only for the maximum time required to perform the service. All information collected is stored securely in Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service databases and processed internally. 

Under no circumstances will the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service rent or sell your personal information to third parties without your permission. 

The Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service have embedded in the site various web site links which are not controlled by us, and these sites have their own individual Privacy Policy. It is highly recommended that you read and check their terms before providing any personal information on their sites. 

We at The Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service welcome any comments relating to this Privacy Policy - please use our Contact Us page