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How do we get information?

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons:

• You have submitted an application for a permit or authorisation
• You have made a complaint or enquiry to us.
• You have notified us of pollution.
• You have made an information request to us.
• You wish to attend, or have attended, an event.
• You have applied for a job or secondment with us.
• You are representing your organisation.

We also receive personal information indirectly, in the following scenarios:

• Your personal information is contained in reports of breaches of environmental law given to us by organisations.
• A complainant refers to you in their complaint correspondence.
• Whistleblowers include information about you in their reporting to us.
• We have seized personal information as part of an investigation.
• From other public authorities, regulators or law enforcement bodies.
• Where you have made your contact information available on your organisation's website and we use this to contact you and your organisation in our role as a regulator.
• An employee of ours gives us your contact details as an emergency contact or a referee.

If it is not disproportionate or prejudicial, we’ll contact you to let you know we are processing your personal information.

As part of SEPA's statutory and corporate functions, we process special category data and criminal conviction data.