Who are we?

We are the fire service who work in your area.  We attend emergencies such as fires and also work with young people who may need help to stay safe.

What is personal data?

Anything that could identify you is personal data.  This will be things like your name or address but could also be things like your email address or gamer username too.

Some information we have to be extra careful with and this includes things like any illness or medical issue you have or your religion.  It also includes information if you have ever committed a crime.

We use lots of personal data to do our work, we have a general privacy notice here if you want to see the full list.

Why do we need your personal data?

We have a duty in law to do certain things like attend fires and give out fire safety advice and to run course to help young people.  In order to do this we need to know who you are.  This means we can be sure we are giving you the help that you need. If we didn’t have your information we wouldn’t be able to do this.

This doesn’t mean we can do whatever we like with your data.  There are laws in place which make sure we only use what we need and no more. Sometimes we can only use your information if you agree, other times we can use it but only for certain things such as making sure you are safe.

What types of personal data do we process?

If you join one of our activities we will need to know a bit about you.  This will include your name, address, image, data of birth and some other information like whether you have a disability or other issue.  We ask for this so we know who you are and how we can help you.  We will also have the details of your parent/guardian in case we need to speak to them.  If you come in one of our vehicles you may be on CCTV too.  We also record what type of work we did with you so we can see if it helped.

Where do we get the personal data we process?

Information may be provided by you, your parent/guardian(s) or by referral from another agency such as the police or local authority.

What law lets us use your personal data?

To obey the law we have to tell you what reason we are using to use your data.  This is called lawful basis. Our lawful basis on this occasion is found in the UK GDPR Article 6(1)(c) Necessary for compliance with a legal obligation.  This means that we have to use your data to do our job. The UK GDPR is the name of the law that we have to follow.

What security measures do we use when processing your personal data?

We are really serious about protecting your information.  We will also only use the smallest amount of information as possible to do our job.  We keep your information on our computer systems which have passwords and other security tools to keep it safe.

Do we tell anyone else about your personal data?

We are an emergency service and we also have to work in communities to teach fire safety.  We have to do these things by law.  To make sure we do what we are supposed to we might need to share your data sometimes.  Most of the time we would ask you whether it is okay, but sometimes we can do it if we think we need to so that you are safe.  When we do share some of your information it is usually to another community group, council departments or on some occasions it could be the police.

Do we keep your personal data forever?

We will hold your data for the time we work with you plus an extra 7 years.  This is for legal reasons.  If we have CCTV images of you from being in one of our vehicles we will only have it for a short period of time and it is usually deleted the following day.

Do you have a say in what happens to your data?

Yes you do and this is known as your data rights. One of your rights is to know what we are doing with your data and that’s what this page is for.  You can ask us to tell you what personal data we have about you.  You can also ask us to stop using your information or to delete it.  Sometimes we can decline this request. If your personal data is wrong, you can tell us and we will fix it.  Your rights are explained fully in our general privacy notice which you can find here.

Who makes sure you are following all the rules?

You can contact our Data Protection Officer if you have any questions:

Post:

Data Protection Officer
North Wales Fire and Rescue Service HQ
Ffordd Salesbury
St Asaph Business Park
St Asaph
Denbighshire
LL 17 0JJ

Email: dpo@northwalesfire.gov.wales

There is a business whose job it is to make sure we follow the rules, this is their contact information:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF or look online at www.ico.org.uk

Date of last update

We last updated this privacy notice on 13th February 2025. We keep this privacy policy under regular review and update it if any of the information in it changes.