Norfolk Fire & Rescue Service privacy notice

What this page is for

This privacy notice provides information on how Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service uses your personal information to provide emergency response, fire prevention and fire protection to the communities that we serve. By ‘use’ we mean the various ways your personal information may be processed including storing and sharing the information.

Further details

We also provide further details regarding:

• Who we are
• How long we use your information for
• Your rights under the GDPR and
• How to exercise them 

You can see this information in our general privacy notice on our website or you can ask us for a copy of this information.

What we use your personal information for

We use your personal information primarily to manage Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service including:

• Emergency response – firefighting, road traffic accidents and other emergency situations
• Delivering advice and home fire risk checks for fire safety in the home 
• Delivering fire safety education to schools
• Working to reduce arson and deliberate fire setting including conducting investigations, delivering arson reduction advice and working with individuals 
• Delivering business fire safety advice 
• Carrying out regulatory inspections
• Acting as the licensing or enforcement authority for regulatory, licensing and enforcement actions for business fire safety
• Acting as the licensing authority for the storage and sale of explosives, petroleum and fertiliser
• Working in partnerships such as the Safer Roads Partnership and the Norfolk Resilience Forum
• Managing water hydrants including collecting reports of damage

We also use this information to assess the quality of our services and evaluate and improve our policies and procedures.

We may also use information in other ways compatible with the purposes listed above.

The information we collect and use

The information we may collect and use may include your:

• Personal details such as your name, date of birth, gender, marital status and number of children 
• Contact details including your address and phone number
• Social relationships including your dependents, other family or other relationships 
• Personal and social history including immigration status, information about number and ages of children and information about any other adults in your home or whether you live alone
• Housing situation including whether you rent or own your home
• Your child’s school

We also collect information about the following which is classed as “special category data” under the GDPR:

• Racial or ethnic origin
• Religious or philosophical beliefs
• Sexual orientation
• Health data including disabilities

We also collect information about criminal convictions and offences.

The GDPR includes safeguards to protect the use of your special category data and criminal conviction data. Further details can be found on our website in the document named ‘Special category data and criminal offences data policy’ which sets out our procedures for compliance with the principles of the GDPR and the retention and erasure of this information.

Who provides this information

The information we hold includes information you have provided to us.

We may also receive information from:

• Your family members, employer or representative
• Your landlord
• Other departments of Norfolk County Council – Trading Standards, Registration Services
• Other public bodies such as the police, ambulance service, local councils and the NHS
• Law enforcement agencies – in relation to our enforcement responsibilities
• Charities and support services who you have given permission to share your information for fire safety reasons
• Companies who have your permission to share your information for security or key holding purposes 

With specific reference to fire safety in the home:

NHS England, the Royal College of General Practitioners and fire and rescue services in England work together to share information to allow fire service staff to offer home safety checks for people who have a higher risk of experiencing a house fire. This is by sharing data that lets NFRS identify the home address of people over 65 so we can offer home fire safety checks to households identified with a possible higher fire risk. For more information about how NHS England use and share your information, see their website.

How the law protects you and the legal basis for processing your information

We have legal grounds to process this information because it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest. This includes tasks under the:

• Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004
• Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
• Manufacture and Storage of Explosives Regulations 2005
• Petroleum (Consolidation) Act 2014
• Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002
• Health and Safety At Work Act 1974
• Environment and Safety Information Act 1988

We also process personal information where it is necessary for the performance of a contract (e.g. lease, licence, service and maintenance contract).

We have legal grounds to process special category data and criminal convictions data where it is in the exercise of a statutory function and it is in the necessary for reasons in the substantial public interest. The statutory functions are as set out above.

We may also seek specific consent to share your information in certain ways. This will normally be where the use of the data is not necessary for the above purposes but there are other services that may be useful or helpful to you or your family. You have a free and genuine choice about the way in which your data is used (for example where we know of services that could be helpful to you or your family) and withholding consent will not affect the basic services that we provide.

Who we share your information with

We may also share your personal information with other organisations and public bodies, in particular:

• Other departments of Norfolk County Council including Trading Standards, Adult Social Services, Children’s Services
• Other local authority such as district or city councils
• Special statutory agency, the Broads Authority 
• Law enforcement agencies including the police
• Health bodies including the NHS England, the Royal College of General Practitioners, NHS trusts
• Government department or agency – Home Office for anonymised information about our activities used for national fire statistics, HMRC, Environment Agency 
• National independent bodies – the Health and Safety Executive
• Other businesses and employers – public utilities (for example to cut off a power supply in an emergency), insurance companies and loss adjusters 
• Judicial or legal agencies including courts, prosecuting authorities, solicitors, probation
• Voluntary organisations and charities – RSPCA 
• Other emergency services – ambulance, coastguard
• The National Fire Chief’s Council

We share this information without your specific consent as it is reasonable and necessary to do so to fulfil our public tasks or it is otherwise in the substantial public interest to do so. The law imposes safeguards to protect your privacy in these circumstances. 

We will also share your information, subject to contractual and other legal safeguards, with organisations contracted by us to provide a service to the council or directly to you. These service providers are known as data processors and have a legal obligation under GDPR and to us to look after your personal information and only use it for providing that service.

Finally, we may also share your information across different departments of Norfolk County Council, where it is necessary for our public tasks or functions to do so.

How we keep your information

The information is stored electronically, on our records management systems known as Fortek Vision, CFRMIS and IRS. Additionally, information is securely stored in other mediums, including email accounts and in paper files. We do not process your information outside of the European Economic Area

Automated decision making

We do not make automated decisions about you and your family.

Date of notice

This notice was updated in September 2019.