Coal tip locations: privacy notice for landowners

This Privacy notice describes how Welsh Government processes personal information in relation to Coal Tip Safety in Wales. It covers how we process your personal information if you are a landowner with a disused tip on your land or property and also if you choose to contact us in relation to coal tip safety in Wales.

The Welsh Government will be Controller for personal information processed for these purposes.

Personal data related to Coal Tip Safety is processed as part of Welsh Government’s public task; that is, exercising our official authority to undertake the core role and functions of the Welsh Government. The statutory basis for processing the data is a combination of powers – section 141 of the Local Government Act 1972, in conjunction with sections 11 and 12 of the Mines and Quarries (Tips) Act 1969; and section 58A of the Government of Wales Act 2006

The Welsh Government has developed a national digital dataset of disused coal tips in Wales as part of its Coal Tip Safety programme. This dataset forms an essential part of how disused coal tips are managed, monitored and maintained in Wales. Mapping the location and extent of tips has allowed the discovery of your registered name and addresses as an owner of land titles that coincide with the boundaries of disused coal tips. This information comes from His Majesty’s Land Registry who provide it via a public register.

We (including our partner organisations and contracted 3rd parties) may use this information to write to you regarding access to land for ongoing tip inspections and maintenance, to inform you of maintenance or activity at the tip and to make you aware of the publication of the disused coal tip locations in November 2023. Land ownership details will be updated from time to time and previous versions of the information will be kept for no longer than 3 years.

We may use anonymised records derived from ownership information to inform the development and delivery of policy and legislation (for example whether a tip is in private, commercial or public ownership).

Your information will only be shared when it is necessary to do so, for example with the Coal Authority who act on behalf of Welsh Government in carrying out tip inspections.
A limited version (category C and D tips) of the national disused coal tip dataset is available to view publicly via the Welsh Government website. This data will not contain any direct reference to your name, address or any land that you own. It will be used indefinitely as an organising principle for managing coal tip safety in Wales (including preparedness exercises). It will be subject to change over time in line with intelligence gathered in relation to a tips condition or extent (for example in response to the findings of an inspection).

The full national disused coal tip dataset is shared with areas of the public sector that have responsibilities relating to coal tips (for example Welsh Local Authorities, Natural Resources Wales, Local Resilience Forums and the Coal Authority) to assist in coordinating the management of tips (including planning and emergency response). It may also be shared with contractors and consultants delivering services or research on behalf of Welsh Government.

If you write to us via email or via the postal service, we will need to process the personal data you provide to enable us to respond to your message. We may need to disclose your information to a third party if their input is required to respond to your enquiry. If you don’t want information identifying you to be disclosed, we will try to respect this. However, it may not be possible to handle an enquiry on an anonymous basis.

Your personal information will be kept within Welsh Government’s secure records management systems for up to three years in line with our information retention policy after which time it will be deleted/disposed of.

Under the UK GDPR you have the following rights:

• to access a copy of your own data
• for us to rectify inaccuracies in that data
• to object to or restrict processing (in certain circumstances)
• for your data to be ‘erased’ (in certain circumstances)
• to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who is our independent regulator for data protection.

The contact details for the Information Commissioner’s Office are: 

Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire,
SK9 5AF.

Phone: 01625 545 745 or 0303 123 1113.

For enquiries about this privacy notice or the coal tip safety programme, please contact:

Email: CoalSpoilTips@gov.wales 

If you have any questions relating to this privacy notice or about how Welsh Government handle your personal information, please contact our Data Protection Officer: 

Welsh Government,
Cathays Park,
Cardiff,
CF10 3NQ
Email: DataProtectionOfficer@gov.wales.