Skip to main content

This privacy notice sets out how and when we use any personal information that we collect about you when you use our services, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure. When you contact us to access our services, or we contact you as part of an investigation we may ask you for certain personal information in order to be able to assist you with your enquiry or to enable us to investigate fully. Some of this information will be recorded and stored on our systems.


When you make a complaint with us we require your name, and contact details, such as your address, email address and telephone number. If you choose not to supply the required information we will not be able to register your new business or take the complaint investigation any further.


In the course of an investigation - for example into illness you may be suffering from we may also require your date of birth, symptoms you are suffering from, details of injuries, the names and details of other people such as your family who may be linked, your occupation and those of your family, your GP surgery, your food history - i.e. what you have eaten and where, and places you have visited. We will gather this information because it is in the public interest in the area of public health. If you choose not to supply the requested information, we may not be able to carry out the investigation.


We use the information collected to enable us to contact you during the investigation of complaints or infectious disease notifications. In the case of an investigation the information may be used to identify the source of an isolated case of illness, to identify an outbreak, or to identify the cause of the accident.


The information we collect is carefully stored electronically and kept for three years as part of an advice enquiry. Information collected as part of an investigation, inspection, enforcement action or monitoring will be kept for a period of six years, 40 years for all matters relating to asbestos management, and permanently for any investigations involving radioactive materials or biological agents. Information collected as part of an exhumation will be kept for 15 years. Case files of deaths reported to the Coroner will be kept for 15 years.


We do not share your information with anyone else unless we are required to do so by law or it is necessary to provide our services to you. We may share your information with Legal Services if we are considering taking legal action, to enable them to advise us on, Public Health England to meet its statutory obligations, especially relating to the investigation of food poisoning outbreaks, Health and Safety Executive in connection with an accident or incident investigation or where the business activity is enforced by the Health and Safety Executive, Police in connection with an incident investigation or illegal activity, Care Quality Commission in connection with an incident investigation where CQC are the enforcing authority, Other Local Authorities in connection with an incident investigation in connection with another authority, Home Office for the purpose of the detection of crime, HMRC at their request or for the purpose of the detection of crime, Food Standards Agency in connection with a business activity enforced by the Food Standards Agency, Devon Registration Service H M Coroner in the event of a death


We process your information with your consent where it is in the public interest to do so, to comply with a legal requirement, where it is in the legitimate interest of MDDC to do so, with your explicit consent or where there is a substantial public interest.


Return to previous page