Guidance

Great crested newt district level licensing scheme privacy notice

Updated 13 November 2024

Applies to England

This privacy notice explains how Natural England collects and processes personal data as part of our great crested newt district level licensing scheme.

Who collects your personal data

The data controller is Natural England at:

Foss House, Kings Pool, 1-2 Peasholme Green, York, Y01 7PX

Send questions about how Natural England uses your personal data and your associated rights to the Natural England Data Protection Manager at [email protected] or:

Foss House, Kings Pool, 1-2 Peasholme Green, York, Y01 7PX

The Data Protection Officer for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) group is responsible for checking that Natural England complies with legislation. You can contact them at [email protected]or:

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, SW Quarter, 2nd floor, Seacole Block, 2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF

What personal data is collected and how it’s used

Natural England collects the following information:

  • your name
  • your contact details, or your agent’s
  • pond site location
  • pond site assessment
  • pond site works
  • biological monitoring of pond

Natural England uses this information to provide and administer a great crested newt district level licensing scheme in your area (‘the scheme’).

Information is collected by approved third party contractors through approved apps, which will automatically geolocate the pond sites to become part of the biological monitoring record.

Processing your data is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest that is laid down by law. Details can be found in sections 1 and 2 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 Act. This sets out Natural England’s general purposes.

The task is delivering and administering the scheme. This includes creating, restoring, managing and monitoring ponds for the benefit of great crested newts in the area of the scheme.

You can withdraw consent at any time by emailing [email protected]

Who Natural England shares your personal data with

Natural England will share your personal data with approved third parties acting on our behalf to perform:

  • specialist site assessments
  • practical works
  • monitoring
  • information processing

Natural England will share the following data on request:

  • location of ponds
  • suitability of the ponds for great crested newts following survey
  • results of a water sample following survey, for example whether great crested news are present

If you want to withdraw consent for data about your ponds being shared on request, contact [email protected]

Natural England will make public under the Open Government Licence the overall pond occupancy for great crested newts within the scheme area.

Natural England does not share your name or contact details.

Natural England respects your personal privacy when responding to access to information requests. We only share information when necessary to meet the statutory requirements of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

How long Natural England holds personal data

Natural England will keep your personal data for whichever is shorter, either:

  • 27 years
  • as long as you’re the owner of the land on which pond habitat for great crested newts has been created or restored, plus 2 years

What happens if you do not provide the data requested

Natural England will not include the site in the scheme.

Use of automated decision-making or profiling

The information you provide is not used for:

  • automated decision making (making a decision by automated means without any human involvement)
  • profiling (automated processing of personal data to evaluate certain things about an individual)

Transfer of data outside the UK

Natural England uses an approved third party to process data. They use a cloud hosted in the United States of America.

Your rights

Find out about your individual rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018).

Complaints

You have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office at any time.

Natural England’s personal information charter

Natural England’s personal information charter explains more about your rights over your personal data.