This page explains how we use your information to administer our obligations in relation to licensing requirements. This information applies to the administration of the following: Licensing Act 2003, Gambling Act 2005, Hackney Carriage & Private Hire and driver licensing, pleasure boats, charities, sex entertainment venues and sex establishments, animal licensing, film classifications, street trading, skin piercing & tattooing, hypnotism, and scrap metal.
We collect the following information:
Details from payment cards used are encrypted and stored in accordance with requirements.
We have a statutory duty to regulate matters captured within the regimes referenced above. We are required to collect and hold your information to fulfil our obligations.
All public bodies (including us) are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The Act makes a presumption of openness. Anyone conducting a business should expect that information relating to it will be released unless a relevant exemption applies.
In some instances, we are required to verify your right to work status. Where required we may make enquiries and verify information with the Home Office and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Where you have indicated to us that you hold qualifications or have passed assessments, we may make enquiries with the relevant bodies.
Where you apply for a DBS check, we will securely retain the original copy of this check until your application has been determined. We will then return this check to you unless you request, we destroy it for you. A copy (or a copy of the result of the check) may be retained by us for the duration of the time, you hold a licence with us and for a specified period after.
We have contracts with third party providers of services, such as for the application for DBS checks. Information will be shared to support the delivery of such services.
We may share information with other council departments, for example we may share details of licence holders to assist with on street compliance (this includes parking, smoking and littering offences). We may also share information with other council departments including revenues and benefits, community safety and council tax enquiries for the purposes of them undertaking their functions.
When we receive complaints regarding licensees, vehicles or premises, information provided may be stored. This may include social media postings, photographs, and personal details.
The police may inform us if you are arrested or charged with a criminal offence under common law police disclosure. We may use this information to decide if it is appropriate to consider action in respect of a licence or authorisation.
We may share information with other local authorities and other partners to support the delivery of our statutory functions. Any information sharing is managed in accordance with relevant privacy and data protection legislation.
When available, we will share details of any suspensions and refusals to a national database and provide details of such to other local authorities upon request as part of their application considerations.
We receive and share information from partners and other authorities relating to the on- going fitness and propriety of licensees and as part of the licensing process. These organisations include Sussex Police, DWP, DVSA, DVLA, Home Office and other local authorities. Any information shared is managed in accordance with relevant data protection legislation. Disclosures of personal data to law enforcement agencies are permitted by data protection legislation for the prevention or detection of crime, or the apprehension or prosecution of offenders. Each request for information will be considered on a case-by-case basis to ensure the request is carried out in accordance with guidance and statute.
Every two years, we are required by law to disclose information regarding personal licence holders to the Cabinet Office (National Fraud Initiative).
We will not pass your information to any other organisation for marketing purposes without your consent. We will not sell data to third parties for this purpose.
If you contact us and we note your contact details need updating, we will do this for you or contact you and advise you what steps you must take.
We may request information from Private Hire Operators regarding their day-to-day operators including records held.
Occasionally we will provide data for trends and monitoring purposes to outside organisations. This information will not contain identifiable or personal data.
If you contact us by telephone your call may be voice recorded for training and monitoring purposes.
Limited information regarding licensees may be made available to the public where required by legislation. This includes names of licence holders, details of licences including operating schedules and dates applications have been received. Such information will be provided via a public register when available. Statutory public registers form a permanent record held by us. In some circumstances we may publicise details of the name of a licensee that has had a licence revoked or has been subject of other enforcement action.
Where the licensing function publishes registers for which there is no statutory requirement to do so, consent will be sought from the licence holder prior to publishing such information.
Where a register is held by us and there is no mandatory requirement for it, you will be asked if you wish to add your details to it. Please note that withholding details from the register is a separate matter from FOI and information held by us must be released unless an exemption applies.
Licensing hearings are conducted in public and form part of a public process except in exceptional circumstances. In all but a few circumstances they follow a public consultation. Those making representations in respect of applications should expect their name and address to accompany their representation which will be available in the public domain. The Act requires such information to be disclosed to the applicant (and licence holder if different from the applicant) prior to a hearing. We may publish information relating to hearings into the public domain including via our website, this includes application forms, reference documents, and other information provided by parties to the hearing. Any such information will be published in redacted format except where statute specifies certain information should be made available (e.g. the provision of names and addresses of persons making representations in respect of public consultations including applications made under The Licensing Act 2003). Where a hearing is to be held in closed session then that information relating to that hearing may be made public.
Where it is possible information will be provided to you in email format. Otherwise we will use standard post. If we need to contact you urgently we will telephone you. We will provide you with updates on applications via text messaging when this service becomes available.
We have a statutory obligation to maintain a convictions register for drivers. This means that any live convictions relating to licensed drivers will be placed on a public register which must be made accessible to the public upon request. If an applicant makes a false declaration and convictions come to light, these will still be placed on the register. By making an application to the authority for a licence, you are consenting to this information being published. Once a conviction is spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, the conviction will be removed from the register.
We may request information from a testing centre regarding the testing of your vehicle and details of the results.
Where you apply for a DBS check, we may make enquiries with our contractor that undertakes this service provision for us to establish if a check has been applied for or has been completed and provided to you.
We as the Licensing Authority will share information with DEFRA regarding licensed vehicles as required by the Air Quality (Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Database) (England and Wales) Regulations 2019. The regulations have been made to facilitate the collection of data to be used for the purposes of improving air quality.
This means that we will regularly be required to send details of vehicles that we license in the Arun area. Details sent will include vehicle registrations, plate numbers and if a vehicle is licensed as a Hackney or Private Hire vehicle. We are required to provide this information so that the Secretary of State can maintain a central register of vehicles. Details of vehicle registrations are not released into the public domain by this authority; however this information will be shared with DEFRA in order to comply with the legal requirement.
DEFRA will be the data controller in respect of the information that is going to be collected, processed, and held. We will ensure that information shared with DEFRA is complete, accurate and up to date. We have been advised that the data will be retained for seven years with historical aggregated data being retained indefinitely for scientific purposes. Aggregated data means information which has been collated for monthly reports.
We retain your data in accordance with a retention schedule. Below is a summary of some relevant retention periods.
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Inspection reports |
Retained for life of licence plus 6 years |
|
Noise Management Plans |
For life of licence plus 6 years |
|
Representations |
Retained for life of licence plus 6 years |
|
Animal boarding records |
Retained for life of licence and for 6 years after |
|
Personal file for driver |
Throughout the period you are licensed and for 10 years after |
|
Complaints and service requests |
6 years |
|
Convictions register |
Maintained until convictions are spent |
|
Premises licensed under Licensing Act 2003 and Gambling Act 2005 |
Record maintained indefinitely in accordance with public register requirements. Documents will be deleted 6 years after files have been closed. |
|
Street trading records, charities permits, boats, animal licensing and navigators |
Records deleted 6 years after closure |
|
Licensed vehicles |
Records deleted 6 years after closure |
You do have some legal rights in respect of the personal information we collect from you. Please see our Privacy policy page for further details.
If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you should raise your concern with us in the first instance or directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office at: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/.
You can also contact our Data Protection Officer by email at data.protection@arun.gov.uk.