Privacy Notice - Home Fire Safety Visits
If you have decided that you want Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service (BFRS) to undertake a Home Safety
Visit, it's important that you understand how your personal information will be collected and used and
what rights you have when it comes to your information.
Why do you need to process my information?
The information we collect is needed to enable us to visit (e.g. your address) and to then carry out the
purpose of the visit (providing advice).
The visit takes place upon request and the information that is collected is used by us to provide the
requested service and to meet our obligations under the Fire and Rescue Service act 2004. These
obligations include promoting fire safety, reducing yours and others risks from fire, providing advice on
actions to take in the event of a fire, safeguarding our community by improving yours and others safety and
providing support to improve your health and wellbeing. Therefore, the use of personal information is
necessary to meet our obligations under the Act and, for the more sensitive data (health information, for
example), the use is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest in meeting our core functions.
How will my Information be used?
The visit will be undertaken by either BFRS staff, volunteers or 3rd party organisation i.e. external partner organisations.
The Home Fire Safety Visit includes questions and observations around:
- Fire safety;
- Wellbeing;
- Any lifestyle issues that might impact on personal safety.
This helps us assess risk and provide the necessary advice and support. We will make a record of your responses and document anything we've seen that relates to the questions and the purpose of the visit. We will also keep a record of referrals made to other agencies and the reasons why.
The information we collect during the visit will be used:
- To provide appropriate services to protect your safety or the safety of others;
- To record and evaluate outcomes of the services BFRS has provided;
- To analyse activity, identify any trends and provide anonymised statistics to the Home Office on the total amount of visits that have been undertaken.
Who will have access to the Information?
Your information will be stored on an internal system and will be used by staff who require it to undertake their role, to carry out the visit, progress outcomes from the visit and administer and evaluate the service.
An outcome of the visit could be that BFRS Control Room personnel and operational crews would benefit from having access to certain information to provide an effective emergency response. In these circumstances, they would have access to an address and a note against that address, such as: 22 High Street - oxygen cylinder.
Protecting your personal information is vital to us so if we make a referral to a partner agency appropriate security measures are in place to ensure it is shared securely and we will only share the minimum amount of information necessary to meet the purpose of the referral.
In the majority of cases, we will not share your personal information without your agreement and you will be informed at the time of the referral.
Examples of referrals which could be offered during the visit, dependent on our findings, are:
- Local Authority falls prevention teams who can support individuals in preventing falls in and around the home;
- Bedfordshire Police to provide advice and support to those who have concerns involving crime, anti-social behaviours, vulnerability and safeguarding;
- Local Authority Social Services who can offer support to individuals across a range of areas including safeguarding.
There are occasions where your personal information can be shared without us asking you: if we have a legal duty or power to share information with other statutory bodies, when the public good is considered to be of greater importance than personal confidentiality and where your safety or the safety of others is at risk. Decisions will be made on a case by case basis.
How long will you keep hold of my information?
The information in the electronic database will be kept for a time period of between 7 and 10 years to fulfil
its obligations under the Fire and Rescue Service Act 2004 to promote fire safety and reduce the risk from
fire to the community.
Is there anything else I need to know when it comes to my personal information?
Further information about the rights you have when it comes to your personal information and who you can contact to discuss it further can be found here.
Referrals to BFRS without consent
There may be occasions when we receive your information without your consent. We will only store the property address and the risks; this enables us to provide an effective emergency response.