Privacy notice: Tree Health ground surveys

This privacy notice will tell you:

• which personal information we will collect and use
• why we need this personal information and what we will use it for
• how we will get this information
• how long we will store it for
• whether there are other recipients of your personal information
• whether we intend to transfer it to another country

We are the controller for any personal information you give to us.

Scottish Forestry
Saughton House
Broomhouse Drive
Edinburgh
EH11 3XD

Scottish.Forestry@forestry.gov.scot 

Please mark any correspondence with ‘Privacy Notice – Tree Health surveillance programme’

Data Protection Officer’s Contact Details

Contact our Data Protection Officer by emailing Scottish.Forestry@forestry.gov.scot.

Mark the email 'FAO Data Protection Officer'.
 

As part of the Tree Health surveillance programme, we will collect the following personal information:

• your contact details (name, phone number, email, address)
• land manager contact details (where applicable)
• contact details you provide for other people of relevance to the site (such as neighbouring landowners or gamekeepers)

The lawful basis we rely on to process personal data for the above purposes is article 6 (1) of the UK GDPR:

• legal obligation
• perform a public task

Scottish Forestry tree health team are required, under the Plant Health (Official Controls and Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Regulations 2019, to inspect for controlled plant pests and diseases (known as statutory pests).

We contact you as the landowner/agent in advance of a tree health survey to acquire relevant health and safety information about the site prior to our visit. This includes information about hazards and obstructions to entering the site.

This ensures surveyors can safely carry out tree health surveys, in accordance with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

It also allows surveyors to make contact in advance of their site visit, if requested.

Scottish Forestry tree health team acquire most contact details on request from the Scottish Government’s Rural Payments and Inspections Division (RPID). 

Contact details may also be passed on to tree health team by:

• Scottish Forestry staff based in local Conservancy offices
• third party contractors conducting tree health surveys on behalf of the tree health team when they meet people on site
   

We share your personal information with:

• relevant Scottish Forestry staff
• third party tree health contract surveyors subject to a data sharing agreement

Your personal information is stored electronically on databases hosted on secure networks only accessible to Scottish Forestry staff using encrypted laptops.

For field operations, databases containing your personal information are stored on the ESRI ArcGIS Online application and made available for mobile and tablet access via the ESRI Field Maps application.

Both applications are password protected and access is only granted to Scottish Forestry staff and third party contractors who need it to carry out tree health surveys.

Emails and any maps provided are shared with third party contract surveyors using the Scottish Forestry Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP).

The SFTP encrypts data during transfer, ensuring files cannot be read or altered while in transit. Access to the service is restricted to authorised users only and is protected by individual user accounts and strong authentication.

The SFTP service is hosted within Forestry and Land Scotland’s secure IT environment and is managed in line with organisational security policies.

Access is logged and monitored, and user accounts are reviewed and removed when no longer required.

The information is then downloaded by the contract surveyors.  

Your personal information will be kept for a minimum period.  

Scottish Forestry Tree Health team keep your personal data for a maximum of six months after:

1. we receive confirmation from a surveyor or a laboratory test result that the site is not positive for the presence of a priority pest, quarantine pest, provisional quarantine pest or regulated non quarantine pest under statutory control as per current legislation, or
2. three years has elapsed from the date of the last positive survey for a priority pest, quarantine pest, provisional quarantine pest or a regulated non quarantine pest under statutory control as per current legislation, or
3. contact details have been shared with specific Forest Research personnel to arrange the release of a biocontrol agent

Once the above conditions are met, digitally held data corresponding to tree health surveys will be disposed of by Scottish Forestry through the permanent deletion of the data held in our databases and files. 

Your shared contact details are only visible to contract surveyors via ESRI applications until the site visit is completed, after which the sites are hidden.

The information shared on the Scottish Forestry SFTP solution is automatically deleted from the platform after 1 month.

All third party surveyors are obliged, as part of their contract, to destroy emails and any other personal information downloaded via the SFTP within 12 months of receipt. 

You can exercise any of the following rights by emailing the Data Protection Officer at Scottish.Forestry@forestry.gov.scot.

Your rights in relation to your personal information are:

• you have a right to request access to, and copies of, the personal information that we hold about you by making a "subject access request"
• if you believe that any of the personal information that we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you have a right to request that we correct or complete your personal information
• you have a right to object to and/or request that we restrict the processing of your personal information for specific purposes

Any requests received by us will be considered under applicable data protection legislation.

This privacy notice was first published in May 2026. 

We will keep this privacy notice under regular review to make sure it is up to date and accurate.

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