Privacy statement
Scottish Borders Council is a local authority established under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. Our head office is located at Newtown St Boswells, Melrose TD6 0SA. You can contact us on 0300 100 1800 or customeradvice@scotborders.gov.uk. The Council’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted using the contact details for the Council as set out above or by email at dataprotection@scotborders.gov.uk.
How we will use your information
We will use your personal information to administer and assess the Scottish Borders Design Awards 2025. The contact details, presentations and videos you have provided will be kept securely and confidentially. They will be retained until the conclusion of the Design Awards 2025. The high-resolution photographs will be kept by the council for the purposes of promoting good design until you request their deletion.
If you have consented to being contacted regarding Doors Open Days, your contact details will also be used to administer and contact you for participation in forthcoming Doors Open Days (held every September). They will be held securely and confidentially for this purpose until you request their deletion / confirm you no longer wish to participate in Doors Open Days.
The Council is relying on your consent to collect and use this information. You can withdraw consent at any time by emailing heritage@scotborders.gov.uk where your information will be securely deleted.
Who we may share your information with
Your information will be accessed by Council staff who need to use it in order to provide the services described above. Your contact details will not be shared with third parties.
The application forms (redacted), presentations, videos and high-resolution photographs will be shared with the judging panel using WeTransfer and may be shown at the Awards Ceremony.
The judging panel consists of a nominated built environment experts including those from the RTPI and RIAS.
The high-resolution photographs may additionally be shared publicly for the purpose of promoting good design in the Borders.
Your information may also be shared and analysed internally in order to provide management information, inform service delivery reform and similar purposes to meet our duty to achieve best value and continuous service improvement.
In general, the Council does not transfer personal data outside either the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA) and on the rare occasions when it does so the Council will inform you. In this case, the transfer of documents via WeTransfer does involve the transfer of data outside the UK and EEA. The Council advises that you read and ensure you are comfortable with the WeTransfer privacy and security notices published on their website.
The data transfers on We Transfer might differ per service, but for wetransfer.com (Transfer) the following goes:
The content (i.e. files, photos etc) you upload remains in the EU on AWS servers in Dublin, as long as you upload those from Europe (including the UK).
Scottish Borders Design Awards 2025 Privacy Notice
We Transfer also make use of services, such as Google Analytics, Sendgrid (to deliver emails) etc. These parties are based in the United States of America. We Transfer have signed standard contractual clauses with all of their service providers that reside outside the EEA/EU. The same applies to their United States subsidiary WeTransfer Corp.
We suggest that you email the application form to the Council and transfer only larger files by WeTransfer, to limit the transfer of personal information via a third party.
Please be mindful of the above audiences, in the creation of your application, presentations, videos and photographs. Where possible, please avoid including personal information within your presentation, video and photographs (for example, number plates). The council will also be mindful of personal information contained within the submissions in their handling of the information.
Decision-Making
The Council does not use profiling or automated decision-making processes. Some processes are semi-automated (such as anti-fraud data matching) but a human decision maker will always be involved before any decision is reached in relation to you
Third Party Information
If you have provided anyone else's details to us, please make sure that you have told them that you have given their information to Scottish Borders Council. We will only use this information as part of the assessment of your nomination and to contact them in connection with delivery of the Design Awards and Doors Open Days (if the latter is consented). If you want any more information on how we will use third party information they can visit our website. or by email: dataprotection@scotborders.gov.uk
Your rights
For information on the rights you have over your personal data, please visit our website http://www.scotborders.gov.uk/DPYourRights or if you would like a hard copy of this information, please contact us using the contact details provided above.
How to raise a complaint
Please complete and return the Details of Individual slip on our webpages with your application.