How we use your information
Aberdeen Scientific Services Laboratory (ASSL) is part of Aberdeen City Council and provides analytical services to Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray Councils, as well as to a range of private customers across a range of work sectors. The ASSL will analyse samples submitted to the Laboratory, using nationally accredited procedures, and will report and comment on the results derived from these samples against current legislation. In this capacity, ASSL supports a range of local authority services in their enforcement activities, particularly the Environmental Health and Trading Standards services.
If we have received information about you from a customer, we will use only the information provided that is necessary to produce a certificate of analysis on the sample submitted. Named individuals will generally not be identified on certificates of analysis. The information we receive about you will include your name, your address and the relevant details of the sample that has been submitted. We need to process this information in order to comprehensively investigate the service request which has been made, and to take the appropriate actions.
We will only disclose your information, for the purposes of supporting either informal or formal enforcement action to protect your public health and that of the general public, to the customer submitting the sample. On occasion, the data generated from analysed samples may be used for statistical or survey purposes but such data will not be identifiable to any specific individual or organisation.
How long we keep your information for
All hard copies of information supplied to ASSL, and of the data and certificates of analysis generated, will be disposed of after 6 years.
Electronic copies of information supplied to ASSL, and of the data and certificates of analysis generated, will be archived to a secure server after 6 years. Archived data will be retained indefinitely and may be used for statistical or survey purposes, but such data will not be identifiable to any specific individual or organisation.
Your rights
You’ve got legal rights about the way the Council handles and uses your data, which include the right to ask for a copy of it, and to ask us to stop doing something with your data. Please email the Council’s Data Protection Officer on DataProtectionOfficer@aberdeencity.gov.uk or write to:
Data Protection Officer
Marischal College
Aberdeen
AB10 1AB
See more information about all of the rights you have. You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office. They are the body responsible for making sure organisations like the Council handle your data lawfully.
Our legal basis
Aberdeen City Council is the Data Controller for this information. Wherever we process personal information we have to make sure we have a basis for doing so in Data Protection Law. We understand our basis for processing your data as Article 6(1)(e) of the General Data Protection Regulation. This is because we consider this activity to be part of our public task and something we can do under current, relevant, legislation.
This is the principal piece of legislation from which we take our statutory duties and powers:
Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 on official controls performed to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules.