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Privacy notice for Licensing

Why we collect your personal information

We collect data in order to fulfil our licensing obligations.  For example, to:

  • assess each applicant’s suitability for a licence
  • ensure that they meet our criteria and to maintain our statutory public register.

We also collect data in order to correspond with licence holders as and when required.

We process and issue licences for:

Taxi licences

  • Private Hire Drivers
  • Private Hire Vehicles
  • Hackney Carriage Drivers
  • Hackney Carriage Vehicles
  • Private Hire Operators

Alcohol, entertainment and charity collections

  • Premises licences
  • Club Premises Certificates
  • Personal Licences
  • Street Collection Licence
  • House to House Collection
  • Temporary Event Notices - see below
  • Sex Establishment Licence
  • Small Society Lottery Registration
  • Alcohol licenced Premises Gaming Machine Permits
  • Club Machine Permits
  • Betting Premises (Track and Non Track)
  • Adult Gaming Centre
  • Casino Licence
  • Bingo Licence
  • Family Entertainment Centres
  • Club Machine Non-Fast track

Our Licensing Enforcement Team handle any complaints related to private hire operators and private hire and hackney drivers, as well as to alcohol licensed premises and gambling premises.

The team also collects data for new and existing taxi drivers in order for the authority to determine whether the person is/remains a ‘fit and proper’ to hold a private hire/hackney carriage drivers licence or a private hire operators’ licence.

Categories of personal data

In order to carry out these purposes we collect and obtain the following where appropriate:

  • Names
  • Addresses
  • Dates of birth
  • Nationality
  • Right to work status
  • Telephone numbers
  • Email addresses
  • Vehicle registrations
  • Medical records and conditions
  • Convictions
  • Police cautions
  • Police Intelligence not resulting in a conviction
  • Payment details (debit/credit card)
  • Bank account number and sort code for Direct Debits
  • Registered GP/Practice
  • NI number
  • DVLA licence number
  • Photographs

The information collected and held will vary dependent on the service used.

The legal basis for using your information

The legal bases for processing your personal information are based on the following statutory duties:

Licensing Act 2003

We are responsible for licensing premises where:

  • Alcohol is sold by retail sale or supplied by a members club.
  • Entertainment is provided (music, dancing, cinemas, theatres, indoor sports, boxing and wrestling)
  • Hot food is provided between 11pm and 5am.

Our duties under the statutory guidance issued by the Secretary of State under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003 are to ensure that applicants/licence holders of alcohol and entertainment licences meet the 4 licensing objectives:

  • The prevention of crime and disorder
  • Public safety
  • Prevention of public nuisance
  • The protection of children from harm.

Taxi licensing

For taxi licensing, we have a statutory duty to protect the public and ensure that drivers and operators are fit and proper and that only suitable and safe vehicles are licensed as private hire or hackney carriage vehicles. It is our statutory duty to license drivers, vehicles and operators to provide safe hackney carriage and private hire transport services for the public under the provisions of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 and the Town Police Clauses Act 1847.

Gambling Act 2005

The Gambling Act contains three licensing objectives which underpin the function of the local authority and the Gambling Commission:

  • Preventing gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder, or being used to support crime;
  • Ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way;
  • Protecting children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling.

Other legislation

The Licencing enforcement team also apply and adhere to the following legislation:

  • Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976
  • Town Police Clauses Act 1847
  • Equality Act 2010
  • Licensing Act 2003

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the licensing service collects and uses this information under powers given to Local Authorities. The following categories of lawfulness apply:

  • Article 6(c) Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation
  • Article 6(e) Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.

Special category data

On limited occasions we may come into possession of special category data.  

To process this data, Article 9 of the GDPR will apply:

  • Article 9 (a) The data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes
  • Article 9 (f) Processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity.

If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have entered into with you or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations.

Who we may share your information with

We may share personal information about you with the following types of organisations:

  • Police
  • Other Local Authorities
  • Central government bodies such as HMRC and DEFRA
  • Solicitors
  • Court
  • National Anti-Fraud Network (NAFN)
  • National Register of Taxi Licence Revocations and Refusals
  • the Gambling Commission and the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS)
  • Other departments within the council

Where necessary these organisations may, under contracts or similar agreements, use third party organisations to process the data we have provided to them. These third party organisations will not be able to use the data for any other purpose and must meet the requirements of data protection legislation and government’s security standards.

As well as information collected directly from you, we also obtain or receive information from: Police, other Local Authorities, HMRC, Solicitors, Court, other departments within the council, Gambling Commission, Licensing Agents, Insurance companies, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), VOSA, NAFN and DBS.

Temporary Event Notices (TENs)

We use the information to process your application or variation or other application for licence or certificate or your personal licence application or a temporary event notice, and, if granted, to regulate your licence, certificate or notice.  We may share the information with other departments at the Council to enable us to  deal with your application but for no other purposes.  Our Estates Team do receive copies of application forms to alert them to any  potential changes to the use of Council land. District Councillors receive this information to enable them to  carry out ward councillor functions.

Accessing the information we hold about you

You have the right to ask for all the information we have about you. This is called a Data Subject Request. Find out more and make a Subject Access Request online.

You can also find out more on the ICO website.

How long we keep information about you

After we deliver a service to you, we have to keep your information as a business record of what was delivered. The type of service will determine how long we have to keep it.

We will only keep your personal information for as long as the law specifies or where the law does not specify this, for the length of time determined by our business requirements.

See our corporate retention schedule to see how long we keep records for different services.

Taxi licensing

For Taxi Licencing requests for service and complaints received and investigated, we retain records for a period of up to 10 years after closure of the enquiry.

Where there has been a revocation of refusal of a licence we will add this information to the National Register of Taxi Licence Revocations and Refusals.  Any relevant data entered onto this register which relates to existing licence holders may be considered as part of future renewal processes. Information will be retained on the register for 25 years.

The information recorded on the register will be limited to:

  • Name, address and contact details
  • Date of birth
  • National insurance number
  • Driving licence number
  • Decision taken
  • The date of the decision
  • The date decision was effective

More information

See our main privacy notice for information about how to complaint, ICO contact details and your rights. 

If you have a concern about how we are using your information, we would ask you to contact us in the first instance at dpo@waverley.gov.uk