Drax Consultation Privacy Notice

Drax Group plc (“Drax”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This privacy notice sets out the basis on which any personal data (called personal information in this notice) we collect from you, or that you provide to us, in relation to a Consultation Paper (as defined below), will be processed by us.

We produce wood pellets, generate electricity and supply low carbon energy solutions to industrial and business customers. From time to time, we carry out consultations by circulating a consultation paper including some of our proposals and plans regarding our operations (each a “Consultation Paper”) and we invite recipients to circulate responses to the proposals put forward in suchConsultation Papers. An example of such a Consultation Paper is a consultation regarding a greenhouse gas calculator.

In any consultation, the collection of personal information is limited to personal information of individuals representing the stakeholder or commercial enterprise/business entity taking part in the consultation. It is generally limited to contact details and will enable us to manage our relationship with you, as explained further in this notice.

We will be the data controller of your personal information which you provide to us or which is collected by us through responses to the Consultation Paper. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you and that we are required to notify you of the information contained in this notice. It is important that you read this notice so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information and how we will treat it.

The information which you provide to us may include information about other individuals who are associated with your organisation or business. If you provide us with information about such individuals, it is important that you provide them with a copy of this notice prior to providing us with the information and that you provide them with any updated notices we provide from time to time.

Our Group Data Protection Officer is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this notice and is contactable via [email protected]. You can also contact us using the details provided at the end of this notice in the “Contacting us” section.

How we use your information

This notice tells you what to expect when we collect your personal information. It applies to information we collect through your submission of a response to the Consultation Paper and any correspondence that we may enter into with you.

When you send your response to the Consultation Paper to us, we will collect your name, contact details, your views on the proposals contained in the Consultation Paper and any other personal information that you provide to us. We will also keep copies of any correspondence we have with you in relation to your response to the Consultation Paper.

We will only use this personal information in order to (1) collate and analyse responses to the proposals contained in the Consultation Paper and (2) to comply with any publication requirements that we may have in relation to the relevant consultation process.

It is in our legitimate interests to process your personal information in this way, as it is necessary to consider third party views on the proposals contained in the Consultation Paper, and these interests are not overridden by any detriment to your rights or freedoms.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Disclosure of your information

We may publish your individual response to the Consultation Paper if you have provided express written consent to us when submitting your response, save that the response will be attributed to the stakeholder or commercial enterprise specified in your response and your personal details will not be published. We will also summarise all responses provided to the Consultation Paper (including those provided by you) and publish an anonymised summary on our website.

In addition, we may share your personal information with the third parties set out below:

  • other companies in our Group of companies such as Drax Power Limited, who provide amongst other arrangements and services, stakeholder management and management reporting;
  • if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal information in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply any contractual terms or our website Terms of Use;
  • in the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal information to the prospective seller or buyer; or
  • if we or substantially all of our assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal information held by us will be one of the transferred assets.

We require all Group companies that we share your personal information with to respect the privacy and security of your personal information and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our Group companies to use your personal information for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal information for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

All of the personal information we collect about you is based in the United Kingdom.

Storage of your personal information

We will only keep your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the relevant purpose(s) we collected it for, as set out above in this notice, and for as long as we are required to keep it for legal purposes.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

For example, we have to keep basic information about consultation zone stakeholders of our power generation development projects for a period of two years, while the application is being considered by the Planning Inspectorate and UK government. This period can vary if the application process takes longer than expected.

In some circumstances:

  • you can ask us to delete your personal information, see Your Rights below for further details;
  • and we may anonymise your personal information (so that it can no-longer be associated with you) for research, planning application or statistical purpose in which case, we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed.

In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal information breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator where we are legally required to do so.

Your rights

Data protection laws provide you with the following rights, to:

  • request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it;
  • request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected;
  • request erasure of your personal information in certain circumstances. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below);
  • request the restriction of processing of your personal information in certain circumstances. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it; and
  • request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

You also have the right to object to the processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights above). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues. The ICO can be contacted by telephone on 0303 123 1113 or by post as follows: Information Commissioners Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF or via email at [email protected]. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance using any of the details set out below in the “Contacting us” section.

Changes to our privacy notice

Any changes we make to our notice in the future will be posted on this page.

Contacting us

If you have any queries, comments or requests regarding this notice or you would like to exercise any of your rights set out above, you can contact us as follows:

  • Contact: Group Data Protection Officer
  • Email: [email protected]
  • Address: Drax Power Limited, Drax Power Station, Selby, North Yorkshire, YO8 8PH