Privacy notice

Neighbourhood Enforcement

The London Borough of Hounslow is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. Through this Privacy Notice we have sought to be as transparent as possible and fully explain how your personal data is held and processed.

This privacy notice applies to services provided by the Neighbourhood Enforcement team and tells you what to expect us to do with your personal information.

The Neighbourhood Enforcement Service operates 7 days a week to ensure compliance across a range of regulatory issues, and where necessary will take relevant enforcement action in order to keep people safe and keep the environment clean. The service has a wide remit including a range of specialised services. Issues handled and services provided are as follows:

  • Uniformed patrols across the council’s housing estate and park
  • Noise nuisance
  • Statutory Nuisance e.g. light, odour, dust
  • Fly-tipping and waste issues on private land
  • Abandoned vehicles
  • Licensing issues
  • Unauthorised encampments
  • Impact of construction
  • Mogden Thames Water Sewage Plant

Please note this list is not exhaustive. 

Officers from the service utilise a range of enforcement tools in order to bring about compliance including formal warnings, legal notices, prosecutions and injunctions. The service follows the enforcement ladder to ensure any enforcement action taken is proportionate and in the public interest, where education and engagement with the community are as relevant as enforcement. The enforcement team are also interested in improving the borough, and from time to time may conduct surveys across the area.

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or any concerns about how we process your data, please contact pollution@hounslow.gov.uk. The privacy notice will continue to be monitored and updated. You are advised to check this page from time to time.

What type of information we have 

In order to carry out the functions of the Neighbourhood Enforcement Service, it is necessary for the council to collect and hold personal information about you.  The information we may collect include:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Telephone number
  • Email address
  • Vehicle registration
  • Photographs
  • Statements of information
  • Survey responses

 

How do we get your information?

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you, for example:

  • You have contacted the council to report an issue that the Neighbourhood Enforcement Team will investigate, such as:
    • Noise complaints
    • Fly-tipped waste on public and private land
    • Concerns regarding anti-social behaviour where you live

Please note this list is not exhaustive.  

We also receive personal information indirectly, in the following scenarios:

  • We may have received a report regarding your property
  • We may have witnessed a fly-tipping incident involving your vehicle, and recorded your registration details in order to investigate further
  • The police have informed us of an incident
  • Local businesses or partner organisations (e.g Lampton 360).

If it is not disproportionate or prejudicial, we’ll contact you to let you know we are processing your personal information. ​

Our Lawful basis for processing your information

The lawful basis we rely on for processing this information is

  • Public Task
  • Legal Obligation

Public Task is defined under article 6(1)(e) of the Data protection legislation as “The activity is necessary for Hounslow Council to perform a task in the public interest or for its official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law”

The basis in law, and legislation that this service relies on, are listed in Appendix 1 of this Privacy Notice.

Why we need your information (purposes of processing)

We collect and hold personal information to enable us to respond to and investigate cases relevant to neighbourhood enforcement including but not limited to noise and other forms of statutory nuisance, waste issues such as fly-tipping and littering, abandoned vehicles, licensing and anti-social behaviour.  Any personal information we collect enables us to contact you, provide support and where applicable, take enforcement action against offenders.

The London Borough of Hounslow is also under a duty to protect the public funds it administers so we may use the information you have provided for the prevention and detection of fraud. We may also share this information with law enforcement agencies and other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds.

The personal data we collect will be used for the following purposes:

  • To provide case updates,
  • To seek clarification where required,
  • To request a witness statement where you have agreed to provide this.

Who your information may be shared with (internally and externally)

We may need to share the information you provide us with other professional organisations such as:

  • Internal council departments e.g housing, community safety, waste & recycling
  • The Metropolitan Police Service
  • Ministry of Justice — for inspection purposes
  • DVLA
  • Housing Associations (e.g A2 Dominion)
  • London Fire Brigade
  • Other local authorities.

We will only share your information with internal departments and other service providers, contractors and/or partner bodies where it is necessary:

  • To comply with a legal obligation
  • Where the disclosure is necessary for the prevention and/or detection of crime
  • Where it is necessary to allow a third party working for or on behalf of the Council e,g LA Support Ltd
  • Disclosure under a court order

We will strive to ensure that any personal data in our care will be kept safe and that where your information is disclosed to a third party working on our behalf, we will seek to ensure that they have sufficient systems and procedures in place to prevent the loss or damage of personal data.

How long we keep your information

Evidential statements and the data contained within, unless used for formal enforcement (issuing of legal notice, prosecution etc) will be stored and deleted in line with the Neighbourhood Service retention policy of 7 years.

Asbestos related cases are retained for 40 years as dictated by the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 and the Health and Safety Executive.

Any information that is used as part of a legal notice and/or court case may be kept for a longer period of time as defined by the notice and/or court.

A number of notices that may contain personal information such as names and addresses are retained in perpetuity, in line with the legislative requirements. An example of this may be notices that are not complied with (such as drainage under a building) under the Environmental Protection Act Provisions of Nuisance.

We will then dispose your information in the most secure manner possible.

Transfers to third countries

All the information you provide us is held within the UK & European Economic Area.

Your data protection rights

The rights available to you depend on our reason for processing your information. For further information about your data protection rights and how to make a request, please see ‘Your rights’

Your right to make a complaint

The Council tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate.

If you want to make a complaint you can contact us on:

Complaints Team
London Borough of Hounslow
Hounslow House,
7 Bath Road,
TW3 3EB

 

Data Protection Officer

The Council’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted on:

Email - InformationGovernance@hounslow.gov.uk

Information Governance Team
London Borough of Hounslow
Hounslow House,
7 Bath Road,
TW3 3EB

 

Information Commissioner’s Office

The Information Commissioner is the UK's independent body set up to uphold information rights.

If you would like to know more about your rights under the Data Protection law, and what you should expect, visit the Information Commissioner’s website: https://ico.org.uk/

If you have any concerns regarding any privacy practices or about exercising your Data Protection rights, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office:

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

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545 745

Email:  casework@ico.org.uk

A full list of what information we control and process and for what purposes is set out in our notification with the Information Commissioner's Register of Data Controllers. Our registration number is Z5761176.  You can view our registration on the Information Commissioner's website.

 

APPENDIX 1

  • Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003
  • Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005,
  • Control of Pollution (Amendment) Act 1989
  • Control of Pollution Act 1974
  • Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
  • Environment Act 1995
  • Environmental Protection Act 1990
  • Highways Act 1980
  • London Local Authorities Act 1990
  • Noise Act 1996
  • Noise and Statutory Nuisance Act 1993
  • Part 4 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014
  • Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984
  • Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949
  • Refuse Disposal (Amenity) Act 1978
  • Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 1990
  • The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011

Published: Wednesday 9 February 2022.

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