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Privacy Policy

Privacy Notice 

We take your privacy seriously. This privacy notice explains how Wales & West Utilities Limited (we or us) will collect and use information about you if you use any of our services, contact us or use this website https://www.wwutilities.co.uk/ except if:

Wales & West Utilities Ltd has notified the Information Commissioner’s Office of its activities in accordance with the data protection legislation (Registration No. Z9017441). This notification can be viewed www.ico.gov.uk.

Please read this privacy notice carefully. If you have any questions or concerns in relation to this privacy notice, please contact our Data Protection Officer at:

Email: DataProtection@wwutilities.co.uk  
Post: Data Protection Officer, Wales & West Utilities Limited, Wales & West House, Spooner Close, Coedkernew, Newport, South Wales, NP10 8FZ

Please note that we may make changes to this privacy notice from time to time. We will post those changes on this website so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and who we may share it with.

1. Information we may collect about you

When you contact us you will generally need to provide us with some personal information so that we can deal with your matter. This may include your name, address, email address, property details, meter point reference number and contact telephone number.

We will also collect information about you if you contact us with an enquiry, complaint when you use our live chat facility, contact us through social media, in response to a communication or survey from us.

For certain projects (e.g. mains replacement projects), we may need to visit your property before starting any work, during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, we may need to ask you for personal information including special category information; for example, health information which relates to health vulnerabilities, symptoms of COVID-19, and the shielding status of individuals at the property. We will collect this information to ensure your safety and the safety of our employees. During these visits, we may take pictures of the inside of your property and may collect information from you (such as dates you may be away from the property) to enable us to give you the best service possible.

In some circumstances we may be required to make a payment to you. Where it is not possible to make a payment to you via cheque we may also collect payment card details from you in order to make an electronic payment.

We may also receive information about you from third parties, such as other utilities companies, for specific limited purposes. For instance, we may receive information about individuals using the mapping service on our website or individuals on the Priority Services Register (please see the section below entitled 'Priority Services Register').

We may collect information about you in connection with legal claims, such as personal injury claims. We may receive this information from you directly or third parties on your behalf. This information may include sensitive health data and may be stored by a third party on our behalf.

If we enter into a service agreement with you as a professional service company, and identify you as the individual providing the service to us using an intermediary for example a limited company, we will collect your personal data to in order to obtain the services and where applicable comply with IR35 taxation legislation.  

If you would like to know what information we hold about you, or change any of the details that you have provided us, you can ask us. Please see the section below entitled 'Your rights'.

2. Why we collect and use your information

The personal information we collect is primarily used by us in order to provide an efficient gas distribution business to train our employees, and to communicate with you.   

Our gas transporters licence, issued by the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (Gema/Ofgem), authorises us to carry out gas distribution activities within Great Britain, including the development, maintenance and operation of our gas network, predominantly presently in Wales and South West England. These activities include:

  • the provision of new gas connections to premises and the systems of other gas pipeline operators;
  • network extensions and mains replacement works; and
  • the provision of the gas emergency service in Wales and South West England.

We are also permitted to carry out metering activities, including the provision, maintenance and replacement of domestic and commercial gas meters, both for ourselves and on behalf of customers, gas suppliers and gas shippers.

We do from time to time conduct consumer surveys which we are obliged by our regulatory licence to carry out and create customer consultation groups/panels to inform our service improvements. We may also canvas interest from potential customers in connection with proposals to extend our network. If you would rather not receive this information or take part in surveys, you can opt-out by contacting us (see 'Your rights' at section 8 below for how to do so). We also have a database of individuals who agree to be contacted by us from time to time.

Connections

We provide new gas connections and alteration services in Wales and the South West of England. More information about connections can be found at:

http://www.wwutilities.co.uk/services/gas-connections/

If you apply for a new connection or any of our other services, you will need to provide us with information about you. This can be done through our online portal or via telephone or in writing. If you apply for a new connection or any of our other services via a professional service company and you are identifiable, we will process your personal data in order to provide you with that service. Where you are required to make a payment, we will also collect payment card details from you.

Where a fuel poor scheme entitlement arises then we may share your information with our fuel poor partners. Where a connection proceeds we may need to share your information with our legal services providers to enable an appropriate land consent and easement to be put in place.

Gas Emergencies

We operate a gas emergencies service across Wales and the South West of England. More information about this service can be found at:

https://www.wwutilities.co.uk/services/smell-gas/

If you do need to ring the free National Gas Emergency Services helpline, please call 0800 111 999. Our provider will record all calls for training and quality control purposes and will ask for certain personal details such as your name and contact information. This is so we can contact you again in relation to the emergency. Depending on the nature of the emergency, we may need to share information about you with other services such as Independent Gas Transporters, Health & Safety Executive, Gas Safe Register, your gas supplier and the emergency services (for example police, fire and ambulance).

Enquiries/complaints

If you have any questions, comments or complaints about our services, then please contact us at: https://www.wwutilities.co.uk/contact-us/.

We will record all calls for training and quality control purposes and will ask for certain personal details such as your name and contact information. We will use any personal information that you provide us in order to resolve your query or complaint.

Depending on the nature of the enquiry or complaint we may need to share information about you with Independent Gas Transporters, Health & Safety Executive, Gas Safe Register, your gas supplier and the emergency services (for example police, fire and ambulance). If your enquiry or any enquiry made on your behalf by a third party (e.g. for locking cooker valve supply) relates to a referral for energy advice or other related services then we may share your information with charities and other organisations.

More information on how we handle complaints can be found here.

3. The Priority Services Register

The Priority Services Register (Register) is a free service provided by the following companies to customers in need:

  • gas suppliers
  • electricity suppliers,
  • electricity distribution networks
  • water wholesalers
  • water retailers

This helps us and other utility companies to make sure that we really look after those who need it most. 

The Register is voluntary and is open to households with:

  • someone of pensionable age living at the property;
  • someone under the age of 5 living with them;
  • someone who is living with a chronic medical condition or is registered disabled; and
  • any other specific needs such as sight or hearing impairments.

If you wish to join the Register, you simply need to contact one of those listed above who provide the free service or contact us at Priorityservices@wwutilities.co.uk.

You will only be added to the Register with your agreement. You can withdraw your agreement at any time by contacting your gas supplier, electricity supplier, electricity distribution network, water wholesaler or water retailer.

If you decide to join the Register when we collect information from you, then we will share information about you where possible with your gas supplier, electricity distribution network and Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water. This will allow them to tailor their services to support households that need extra help. In an emergency situation we and any of the companies who maintain Priority Service Registers may need to share information about you with British Red Cross, Fire Service, Age Cymru, Age UK and other organisations and charities who help people in need or crisis.

More information about the Priority Services Register can be found at: https://wwutilities.co.uk/services/priority-customers/priority-services-register/.

4. Sharing your information

We may need to pass on your address, property details and meter point reference number that you have provided to us in order for us to provide services to you.  We will share this information with:

  • Xoserve Limited, which is the organisation that maintains metering records for the whole of the UK gas industry (or any company appointed in their place); and/or
  • other gas shippers and gas suppliers.

We have legal obligations to supply information to certain governmental and regulatory authorities and so may also be required to pass on your personal information to certain third parties, including Ofgem.

We may also need to pass the personal information to contractors who supply services to us, such as auditors, professional advisers and those providing gas connection and metering services. We pass on personal information to these parties in order to comply with our statutory and contractual obligations, for example under the Gas Act 1986 and to provide services to you. We shall seek only to pass on details that are necessary for those purposes.

We may share your personal information with selected hotels or service providers, to meet our regulatory obligations to assist you if your gas supply is interrupted for more than 24 hours.  This could include contact information, COVID -19 status and any special category data you have provided to us for this purpose.

We may disclose any of the personal information that we hold about you if required to do so by law or requested to do so by any Governmental or law enforcement agency.

We do not routinely transfer and store personal information outside the European Economic Area (EEA), however we do use providers that transfer data to their subsidiaries outside the EEA in certain circumstances. In each case, we have put in place adequate protections and contractual provisions to protect your information.

5. Our legal basis for collecting, holding and using your information

Data protection law sets out various lawful legal bases (or ‘conditions’) which allow us to collect, hold and use your personal information:

  • We will sometimes use your personal information based upon your consent. We will always tell you where this is the case and ask you to agree before we process your information. An example of using your personal information with your consent is where you would like us to add you to our Priority Services Register (see above).
  • Where we have entered into a contract or contracts with you, we may need to use your information to provide you with services.
  • As a regulated entity, we are subject to various legal and regulatory obligations which require us to process your personal information. For instance, we are obliged to comply with our gas transporters licence, the Gas Act 1986 and the conditions set out by Ofgem. Where we are required to do so, we will process your personal information in order to comply with these rules and regulations.
  • Finally, sometimes it is necessary to process your personal information for the purposes of our own legitimate interests. We will only do so where these interests are not overridden by the interests and fundamental rights or the freedoms of the individuals concerned. We believe that our legitimate interests include running and managing our business as an efficient gas distributor and to undertake the activities set out at section 2 above.

Data protection law recognises certain "special categories" of personal information, which is information revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic information, biometric information for uniquely identifying a person, information concerning health, and information concerning a person's sex life or sexual orientation. These special categories are considered particularly sensitive and so we will only collect and use this information where you have given us your explicit consent or where we consider it necessary to protect your vital interests.

6. How long we keep your information

We will generally keep personal information about you no longer than is needed to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including legal, accounting, reporting or regulatory reasons.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, its link to data relating to our network assets, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for regulatory or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you. All personal data will be kept in line with our retention rules policy.

7. Security of your information

Keeping information about you secure is very important to us. We will take appropriate measures to ensure that your information is kept securely and is not disclosed to anyone who is not entitled to see it.

Whilst we strive to protect your personal information, no data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be totally secure and therefore we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you send to us. You send any information via this website at your own risk.

8. Your rights

You have the right to request from us access to your own personal information. This is sometimes known as a 'subject access request'. 

You also have additional rights to request from us:

  • That any inaccurate information we hold about you is corrected
  • That your information is deleted
  • That we stop using your personal information for certain purposes for example when you withdraw consent 
  • That we stop any consent based processing of your personal information after you withdraw that consent
  • That your information is provided to you in a portable format
  • That decisions about you are not made by wholly automated means

Many of the rights listed above are limited to certain defined circumstances and we may not be able to comply with your request. We will tell you if this is the case.

If you wish to exercise any of your rights please contact dataprotection@wwutilities.co.uk

If you choose to make a request to us, we will aim to respond to you within one month. We will not charge a fee for dealing with your request.

If you are dissatisfied with how we are using your personal information or if you wish to complain about how we have handled a request, then please contact our Data Protection Officer and we will try to resolve any issues you may have. However, you also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, which is the statutory regulator for data protection law. Details of how to complain to the ICO can be found at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/.