Privacy

About this policy

The Queensland Building and Construction Commission manages personal information in line with the Information Privacy Act 2009. 

We collect and manage your personal information when you:

• complete and submit a form electronically or by mail
• deal with us at a QBCC front counter
• deal with us over the telephone
• register for myQBCC
• email us
• provide us with feedback
• ask us to contact you

and you consent to us collecting, storing, using, maintaining and disclosing your personal information in accordance with the Information privacy principles (IPPs).  

Information we may request

We may ask you to provide personal information if you submit feedback to QBCC or lodge a form, electronically or otherwise. 

We will only do this:

• to meet your needs (e.g. answer a question)
• to meet our needs (e.g. demographic analysis, updating our records)
• if required by law.

Examples of 'personal information' may include your name, address, phone number, email address, age, gender, your employer, your photo ID and your position title.

Use of personal information 

The type of personal information QBCC holds from both our external and internal customers includes (please note this is not an exhaustive list of personal information held by QBCC):

• recruitment records, which may include but is not limited to contact details, resume information, referee reports
• employee records, which may include but is not limited to contact details, next of kin details, signatures, identification documents, salaries, bank account details, superannuation details, internal complaints. Performance and development information, education information, date of birth
• licensee and certifier records, which may include but is not limited to financial information, accountant details, bank account details, bankruptcy information, membership details, work experience and qualification certificates, insurance details, contact details, signatures, trading names, membership details, agents names, date of birth
• home owners' personal information, which may include but is not limited to contact details for Home Warranty Insurance, dispute complaints, insurance claims and certifier complaints including but not limited to contact details, bank details, residential addresses
• compliance information from complainants and alleged offenders, including contact details, names, addresses, signatures, individuals, breaches of legislation
• plumbing and pools information for Form 4 notices and pool registration, which may include names, site addresses
• information relating to other investigations into nonconforming building products and safer building including individuals' names and site addresses, individual suppliers
• contractors and consultants hired by our agency may include names and contact details, types of service or product provided by individual
• RTI and IP applications contain applicants' names, agents' names and contact details, and other personal information relating to the subject matter and certified identification documents
• Education and Engagement, consultants' contact details, seminar attendees' names and contact details
• service complaints and compliments, which may contain names and contact details of customers and personal information of officer/s relating to specific matters
• administrative information such as general enquiries by customers may contain names and contact details on our database to enable requests to be actioned.

All QBCC personal information will be assigned an information security classification to ensure the information is managed and secured in a manner appropriate to its sensitivity and importance, and to make information available when appropriate and authorised.

The personal information held by QBCC will be retained in accordance with the QLD State Archives QBCC Retention and Disposal Schedule.

QBCC may disclose the information you provide, to other agencies pursuant to Sections 28A, 28B and 110(3) of The QBCC Act 1991 (The Act).

These sections of The Act permit the QBCC to disclose the information you provide, including personal information, to relevant agencies for the following reasons:

• Information, in relation to a notifiable incident, is relevant to the functions of a health and safety regulator.
• The disclosure to any court, tribunal or authority is required to enable the agency to perform its functions.
• The disclosure is reasonably necessary for protecting the health and safety of a person or property
• QBCC may also disclose the information you provide to interstate or New Zealand licensing bodies as per the Mutual Recognition Act 1992 (Cth), Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Act 1997 (Cth), Mutual Recognition Act (Queensland) Act 1992, Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition (Queensland) Act 2003 if you are applying for a licence outside of Queensland.

Please note that these are not the only reasons information may be disclosed to the relevant agency.

If you're a QBCC licensee, your personal details may be used to send you important updates regarding new legislation or amendments, changes to policies and other information related or connected to your licence. 

The information you provide when submitting Notifiable Work may be:

• used for the administration of the Plumbing and Drainage Act 2018, including for the purposes of statistical research and other evaluation
• used to monitor, investigate and ensure compliance with the legislation
• made available to licensed plumbers and other licensed building industry practitioners for the purposes of conducting work at the property
• made available to the property owner or the person who requested the work
• made available to other government agencies, local government authorities and third parties for purposes relating to the administration of and compliance with legislation.

Educational materials

An object of the Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991 (QBCC Act) is to be proactive in educating those who undertake building work and consumers.

In regard to education, the QBCC Act states:

Part 1 – Preliminary (3 Objects of the Act):

(c) to provide support, education and advice for those who undertake building work and consumers;

Section 20J

(j) providing and promoting consumer education;

(k) publishing information about building products, including, for example—(i) the uses for which particular building products are not suitable; and (ii) how to use particular building products to ensure their use is safe and complies with relevant legislation;

In line with the above object of the Act, QBCC may send (whether by phone, email, SMS, post or facsimile) you material it considers to provide support, education and advice. This may include updates to keep you abreast of industry news, opportunities to submit feedback on discussion papers, educational information and professional development opportunities including seminars and events. We may also send you information on behalf of Queensland Government departments including the Department of Housing and Public Works.

To align with licensees licensed under the QBCC Act we will also include licensees licensed under the Building Act 1975 and Plumbing and Drainage Act 2018 when sending relevant educational material as addressed above.

We may use your personal details to email you a survey to help us measure your experience with the QBCC. 

Safer Buildings and combustible cladding checklist

The Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) is collecting personal information as required under the Building Regulation 2006. This information may be stored by the QBCC and the Department of Energy and Public Works, and will be used for administration, compliance, statistical research and evaluation of combustible cladding risk.

Your personal information may be disclosed to other government agencies, local government authorities and third parties for purposes relating to administering and monitoring combustible cladding risk. Personal information will otherwise only be disclosed to third parties with your consent or unless authorised or required by law.

Project bank accounts

The QBCC collects information relating to project bank accounts pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017. This information is used for the establishment, opening and closing of the project bank accounts, investigations and notifications in relation to the bank accounts.

This information could be disclosed to other parties as stated on the relevant forms and may be subject to application for access under the Right to Information Act 2009 (RTI Act) and Information Privacy Act 2009 (IP Act).

Disclosure of personal information

If you have submitted an application or complaint, we may provide all or some of this information (if applicable) to your:

• contractor/client
• members of our panel of technical consultants (includes licensed contractors, registered engineers and industry specialists)
• rectifying builders
• external legal consultants
• external financial consultants
• reinsurers/actuaries
• responsible Minister.

We may also disclose your personal information to third parties, including advisors and consultants and with third party service providers we use in connection with conducting our business and always subject to confidentiality provisions we deem appropriate being agreed to. 

Some of the third parties to whom we disclose your personal information may be located outside Australia. For example, we may disclose your personal information to external national or overseas facilities in the course of conducting information and data processing, back up and scanning or for the purposes of obtaining other services from third parties.

We will not give your personal information to third parties without your consent, unless as set out above or required by law.

Insurance information statement

The following information you provide when paying QBCC insurance premiums can be provided to the owner of the property or a prospective owner of the property in an insurance information statement:

• builder’s name
• site address
• contract date
• work description.

Emails

Our privacy principles apply to emails as well.

Our internet service provider or information technology staff may monitor email traffic for system troubleshooting and maintenance purposes only.

Visiting our website 

If you access an unsecured part of our websites, that is, a public page that does not require you to log on, we (or our service providers) will collect information about your visit, such as: 

• the time and date of the visit 
• your operating system and device information 
• any information or documentation that you download 
• your browser type 
• your IP address.

Cookies

A 'cookie' is a small text file that is placed on your internet browser, which we access each time you visit our website.

When you visit the secured pages of our website (i.e. pages that you have to provide login details to access) we use cookies for security and personalisation purposes. When you visit the unsecured pages of our website (i.e. public pages that you can access without providing login details) we use cookies to obtain information about how our website is being used.

You may change the settings on your browser to reject cookies, however, doing so will prevent you from access to the secured pages of our website.

Security

Parts of this site transmit information securely across the internet. However, this is not always feasible. We recognise that there may be risks transmitting information across the internet. We will notify you where personal information is not transmitted securely.

Where this site contains links to Queensland Government agencies’ websites, the privacy or security terms set out there will apply to the material on the websites.

Where this site contains links to non-Queensland Government websites, the Queensland Building and Construction Commission is not responsible for the privacy or security practices or the content of any such websites.

CCTV systems at QBCC offices

Any personal information captured on closed circuit television may be used for security purposes and is handled in accordance with the Information Privacy Act. The footage is overwritten every 7-30 days depending on the type of system used in each office.

Contact us for help with your enquiries.

More information

Contact us if you would like to know more about information privacy. You can also visit the guidelines for community members on the website of the Office of the Information Commissioner Queensland.