Last updated

9 July 2026

Local fire and rescure plan consultation - Privacy notice

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Introduction

Last updated: July 2026

Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) is committed to protecting your personal information. The processing of personal data is covered by the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 and Data Protection Act 2018.

This privacy notice explains the information SFRS (“we”) are collecting about you, why we have collected it and how it will be used.

Process owner: Governance, Strategy and Change Directorate

This notice relates to the following categories of data subject: SFRS Stakeholders, Members of the Public and SFRS Staff

Why are we collecting your information?

We are legally required to prepare Local Fire and Rescue Plans on publication of new Strategic Plan. Consultation of draft Plans for each local authority area with relevant stakeholders is a statutory requirement of the development process.

This consultation exercise is to provide all stakeholders with an opportunity to share their views on our proposed plans.

To fully analyse the results received, some personal information will be requested to allow us to identify any data trends. Personal data will also be requested to enable a receipt of response or to enable feedback to any queries received.

To gauge your views, an eight-week public consultation will be launched.

You will be able to submit your views via an online questionnaire.

The questionnaire will be downloadable. Hard copies will be returned by you directly to the Strategic Planning and Partnerships Team to ensure confidentiality.

By contributing to this consultation, you are giving express permission for your comments to be published; however, any such comments will be published anonymously.

You will be given the opportunity to comment on how we have conducted this consultation exercise. This will provide us with your views on what worked well and what could be improved to help inform future exercises.

We are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and, therefore, we must consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation.

How we collect the information about you?

We collect the information directly from you when you complete the questionnaire, either via Citizen Space or on the downloadable paper format which will be input into Citizen Space. Any paper format will be destroyed once input into Citizen Space.

What happens if I do not want my information collected?

The provision of certain categories of personal data is optional.

You can still share your views; it may mean that we will be limited in the scope of any detailed analytical reports that are produced. It may also mean we will not be able to acknowledge receipt of your response or to follow up on any queries you may have.

What information is being collected by us?

Categories of personal data:

  • Name (Optional)
  • Email address (Optional)
  • Organisation, group or team name
  • First part of postcode, e.g. DD11, G12
  • Local authority area
  • IP address (system generated)
  • Unique response identifier (system generated)

Special categories of personal data (Optional):

  • Age
  • Gender / gender identity
  • Caring responsibilities
  • Care experienced
  • Disability
  • Ethnicity
  • Sexual Orientation
  • Religion or belief

Legal basis for the processing

Before we process your data, we need a legal basis for doing so. In this case, the basis for processing your personal data is consent. This allows us to determine if our strategies are reflective of your expectations so that services can be provided appropriate to your needs.

SFRS employees are asked to identify themselves as employees to enable the collation of staff specific issues, so that action can be taken as appropriate.

The system collates IP address information. This is intended to assist us in identifying suspicious responses, such as in the case of automated submissions, duplicate submissions or where inappropriate content has been submitted.

Each participant who submits a response in Citizen Space is given a unique ID for that response. This ID is response specific, not user specific, meaning that every response is given an ID not each respondent. This is designed to track and find formal submissions.

Special categories of personal data are requested to determine if our consultation is fair and inclusive and there is a satisfactory level of engagement across protected characteristic groups. The provision of this information is optional. However, if it is provided, you are giving explicit consent for us to use this information.

This is covered under the Data Protection Laws below:

For Personal data:

  • the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her Personal

Data for one or more specific purposes – Art. 6(1)(a)

For Special Category data:

  • the data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of those

Personal Data for one or more specified purposes – Art. 9(2)(a)

How the information will be used and stored?

Your response will provide us with insight of your views in relation to our draft Local
Fire and Rescue Plans and the deliverables we propose carrying out within its term.

We encourage your participation and involvement in our decision-making processes
and facilitate open dialogue which will strengthen the voice of communities, our
partners and the public.

Your information will be stored in Citizen Space and only designated staff from the
Governance, Strategy and Change Directorate will be able to access the software.
You should read further information in relation to Citizen Space and the Citizen
Space Privacy Notice.

Any analytical work using your response data will be exported to an excel
spreadsheet and saved to SharePoint that can only be accessed by designated
members of the Strategic Planning, Information Governance and Performance Data
Services.

Your personal data, such as name, email address, IP address and unique reference
number, will not be saved, as this is not required for analytical purposes.

Who we share your information with?

By commenting on this consultation, you are agreeing that your comments can be made public in a consultation report that may be published on our website.

We may use your comments within a press release or online (social media or website).

If you are responding as an individual, your responses will remain anonymous; consent may be sought from organisations to share their comments.

For the benefit of SFRS staff, further information about the anonymity of the survey and how information will be used will be included in various communications methods, including SFRS Weekly Brief and iHub articles.

Any reports submitted to SFRS management or published on our communication platforms will be entirely anonymous. This includes redacting any identifying personal information within free text responses.

How long we hold your information for?

The information will be collected over a period of eight weeks. It will then be processed for a further five weeks.

Any personal information provided by you will be destroyed within six months of the end of the consultation process. This will ensure we are not keeping any personal data longer than necessary.

Automated decision-making?

The information we have collected will not be used to make any automated decisions about you.

Requesting access to your personal data and your rights

Under data protection legislation, you have many rights regarding your personal data. You have the right to:

  • be informed of how we will process it;
  • request a copy of what we hold about you;
  • have it deleted (where we do not have a legal requirement to retain it);
  • have it rectified, restricted;
  • object to us using it;
  • data portability (in certain circumstances).

Where we are processing data based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent by unsubscribing at any time.

To act on any of the above rights or if you have any concerns about how we are using your personal information, please contact the Information Governance Manager / Data Protection Officer (contact details below).

However, if you are unhappy with the way we have processed your information or how we have responded to your request to exercise any of your rights in relation to your data, you can raise your concerns directly with the Information Commissioner’s Office, Tel. No. 0303 123 1113 or in writing to:

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

For more information about your rights:
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulationgdpr/individual-rights/

To complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office:
https://ico.org.uk/concerns/

We are a Data Controller for personal data. Our details have been registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and our register number is Z3555625.

The ICO’s register can be viewed online at http://ico.org.uk.

If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice, please contact:

Carol Wade, Information Governance Manager / Data Protection Officer. Email: carol.wade@firescotland.gov.uk

Review date: July 2027