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Stop Smoking Services privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review. It was last updated on 26 March 2026.

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data, what your privacy rights are and how the law protects you.

View an easy read version of the Stop Smoking Services privacy notice (PDF, 653.8 KB).

Who we are

We collect, use and are responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are regulated under the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. We are responsible as the “data controller” of that personal information. Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

Under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 Section 12(c), we have a statutory responsibility for public health, including the provision of stop smoking services.

As part of this responsibility, we commission a range of stop smoking services to support Kent residents who smoke, to stop smoking. This privacy notice covers the following services:

  • Primary Care Stop Smoking Service: this service, provided by GPs and pharmacies, supports smokers within GP and pharmacy clinical settings, with a minimum 7 week stop smoking programme. This service includes the provision of Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT), pharmacotherapy and other quit-aids such as vapes.
  • Outreach Stop Smoking Service: this service, provided by Everyone Health, supports smokers with a 12-week stop smoking programme, within community settings. This service includes the provision of Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT), pharmacotherapy and other quit-aids such as vapes, as well as behavioural support.
  • Alternative Stop Smoking Service: this service, provided by Allen Carr EasyWay Ltd, offers a group-based, one day seminar to support smokers to quit smoking. Behavioural support sessions with a trained stop smoking advisor,

Personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

When you present to a commissioned Stop Smoking Service, and throughout your quit journey, you will be asked a series of questions which the services keep as a record of your quit journey.

We collect personal data as part of this process, We collect:

  • personal information, for example, your:
    • name
    • address
    • age
    • date of birth
    • sex
    • NHS number
    • socio-economic status.
  • contact information, for example, your:
    • telephone number
    • email address
    • postal address.

As part of this process, we may also collect ‘special category data’ (personal data which is more sensitive and is treated with care and protection). We may collect:

  • health and wellbeing information, for example:
    • your smoking history
    • information on your current or past quit attempts
    • pre-existing health conditions
    • current medication
    • disability status
    • pregnancy status
    • if you are in receipt of free prescriptions
    • your GP practice.
  • Equality monitoring information, for example, your:
    • ethnic origin
    • gender identity
    • sexual orientation.

Stop Smoking providers also keep records relevant to:

  • staff training
  • appointment management
  • contract monitoring.

We do not receive or process any personally identifiable information, this is done by the relevant service provider to the extent described in this notice. Our contractual arrangements with our service providers ensure that the grounds on which they may collect and process data are clear, and there are appropriate arrangements for data security (including a process for dealing with any data breaches) and for the deletion of data when it is no longer required.

Even though we do not receive personally identifiable details about you from our providers, we are a data controller as we determine the manner and processing of the data on behalf of the providers.

Please refer to our providers’ privacy notices via the links below or contact them to find out more:

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

  • accept, review and process referrals to the relevant service
  • capture relevant personal data around your on-going support needs and to maintain on-going records of support provided
  • communicate with you and referrers regarding the outcome of a referral to the services
  • to arrange a detailed consultation and identify the most suitable service provision for you or to book you onto a group-based seminar, where a referral is accepted
  • use the personal information shared to make decisions regarding potential referrals to wider relevant services, if appropriate and with your additional consent
  • record information about the type of interventions and activities offered by the relevant service
  • record, where relevant, nicotine replacement therapy and/or pharmacotherapy products accessed as part of the service provision
  • offer sessions online, if preferred, which may involve the sharing of additional personal data through video and audio, for example, on Microsoft Teams
  • submit anonymised data to the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) via the NHS England Digital Return - Stop Smoking Services Collection. As a Local Authority, we are required to submit quarterly data sets on our stop smoking services.

We are one of the partner organisations to the Kent and Medway Care Record (KMCR). The KMCR is an electronic care record which links your health and social care information held in different provider systems, to one platform. This allows health and social care professionals who have signed up to the KMCR to access the most up to date information to ensure you receive the best possible care and support by those supporting you. The KMCR can also be used for secondary purposes. This includes using the KMCR information for planning (for example, population health management), audit (for example, business intelligence) and research (for example, academia).

In order to enable this sharing of information, organisations who use the KMCR have agreements in place that allow the sharing of personal and special category data. Further information about the ways in which your data is used for this system can be found in the Kent and Medway Care Record privacy notice.

Anonymised data from the stop smoking services, submitted to us, and then DHSC, are used to:

  • monitor the performance and effectiveness of the Stop Smoking services
  • review, plan and implement service improvements to meet local needs
  • provide data to understand local smoking prevalence, as well as nationally
  • contractual performance.

NHS and Care Services

We have processes in place for considering requests for data disclosures for purposes beyond direct care which is consistent with the national data opt-out policy. Our organisation is compliant with the national data opt-out policy.

To find out more about the NHS’ wider use of confidential personal information and to register your choice to opt out if you do not want your data to be used in this way, visit the NHS website. If you do choose to opt out, you can still consent to your data being used for specific purposes.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal data

When we collect your personal data we rely on the following legal basis:

  • Article 6(1)(a) - Consent: the individual has given clear consent for you to process their personal data for a specific purpose.

When we collect your ‘special categories of personal data’ (such as health information), we rely on the following legal bases:

  • Article 9(2)(a) - Explicit consent: the data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes, except where domestic law provides that the prohibition referred to in paragraph 1 may not be lifted by the data subject.

We take the following appropriate safeguards in respect of your special category data when relying on the conditions above:

  • we maintain a record of our processing in our ‘Record of Processing Activities’.

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law or in connection with legal proceedings.

We will share personal information with our legal and professional advisers in the event of a dispute, complaint or claim. We rely on Article 9(2)(f) where the processing of special category data is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity.

How long your personal data is kept

For the retention period of your personal data, refer to the relevant provider’s privacy notice.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have rights which you can exercise free of charge which allow you to:

  • know what we are doing with your information and why we are doing it
  • ask to see what information we hold about you (Subject Access Requests)
  • ask us to correct any mistakes in the information we hold about you
  • object to direct marketing
  • make a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office

Depending on our reason for using your information you may also be entitled to:

  • ask us to delete information we hold about you
  • have your information transferred electronically to yourself or to another organisation
  • object to decisions being made that significantly affect you
  • object to how we are using your information
  • stop us using your information in certain ways.

We will always seek to comply with your request however we may be required to hold or use your information to comply with legal duties. Your request may delay or prevent us delivering a service to you.

For further information about your rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation.

If you would like to exercise a right, please contact the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@kent.gov.uk .

Your right to withdraw your consent

Where we rely on your consent to process your personal information, you can withdraw your consent to our use of your data at any time. To withdraw your consent, email public.health@kent.gov.uk .

Keeping your personal information secure

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Contact

Contact the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@kent.gov.uk to exercise any of your rights, or if you have a complaint about why your information has been collected, how it has been used or how long we have kept it for.

Contact our Data Protection Officer, Benjamin Watts, at dpo@kent.gov.uk .

The United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner who may be contacted via the Information Commissioner's website or telephone 0303 123 1113.

Read our corporate privacy statement.