Privacy Notice - Health and safety

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, or an accident you have had, 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. We will gather this information because it is in the public interest in the area of public health or health and safety. 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 in relation to health and safety interventions, 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 or to identify the cause of the accident.

The information we collect is carefully stored electronically. A paper copy will also be kept of application forms for cooling towers and evaporative condensers.

Once the business is closed records will be retained for a period of six years. Information collected as part of an advice enquiry is kept for three years. 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. Accident reported information will be kept for 3 years 4 months for adults and 21 years and 4 months for persons less than 18 years of age. RIDDOR reported accidents will be kept for three years and 30 years for any reported injury, disease or dangerous occurrence. 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, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue if fire safety issues arise during the course of a visit, Public Health England to meet our statutory obligations, Health and Safety Executive in connection with an accident or incident investigation, Police in connection with an accident or incident investigation or illegal activity, Care Quality Commission in connection with an accident or incident investigation, other local authorities where the business or complaint or accident or incident investigation is linked 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, Devon Registration Service HM 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 or where it is in the legitimate interest of MDDC to do so.