Some of the language used in privacy notices can be specialised. The Information Commissioner's website provides a useful introduction to key terms and concepts.
We will process normal category data such as your name for the purposes of administration such as monitoring interview returns or contact names for dealing with operational issues.
Depending on the nature of the information that you provide in your responses to the interview questions we may also process special category data such as information about your health, racial or ethnic origin.
Special category data as defined by the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) applies to personal data revealing:
- an individual’s race or ethnic origin
- political or religious views
- sex life or sexual orientation
- trade union membership
- physical or mental health
- genetic or biometric data.
Source of the information
Personal information is provided directly from Members (data subjects).
The purpose of the processing
The interview asks a number of questions about Members’ views and experiences to help inform an assessment of how parliamentary services are being delivered and ensure Members are effectively supported in their parliamentarian and representative roles. Through seeking Members views and feedback on their experiences of service delivery, this will allow us to temperature check our services, and identify and understand any common or recurring themes and/or widespread concerns or issues to enable us to make any adjustments or improvements or inform how we plan our services and facilities.
A note of the interview will be taken by the interviewer or a separate note taker. The name of the Member will be recorded for administrative purposes such as monitoring returns. Interviewers will be responsible for passing on any specific immediate operational issues raised to the relevant business areas to resolve as part of normal operations. In this case, a contact name will be required so the business area can contact the Member or relevant person, if needed and also to close the feedback loop with the Member. With the exception of providing a contact name for operational issues, participants will be asked not to name individuals, job titles or provide information likely to disclose the identity of others in their comments when answering the interview questions.
On completion of the interview, the SPCB will collate the raw data and analyse the information. All Members’ feedback will be anonymised for analysis and reporting purposes. The notes of the interview will only be available to a limited number of staff who will use this information to consolidate the anonymised data to analyse and report findings. After the findings are reported, any personal data will be deleted.
The legal basis of processing
Data protection law states that we must have a legal basis for handling your personal data.
Where personal data is processed either directly or indirectly from the response to the interview questions the legal basis for processing is that it is carried out for the purposes of a task carried out in the public interest in terms of Article 6 (1)(e) UK GDPR. In terms of section 21 of the Scotland Act 1998 it is the function of the SPCB to ensure that the Parliament is provided with the property, staff and services required for the Parliament’s purposes. This is so that Members are effectively supported in their parliamentarian and representative roles. For the processing of any special category provided in response to the interview questions, the legal basis is that the processing is for substantial public interest in terms of Article 9(2)(g) UK GDPR and paragraph 6(2)(b) of the Data Protection Act 2018.
Data sharing
The full interview responses will only be accessible by a limited number of SPCB staff, who are responsible for anonymising and consolidating the feedback for analysis and reporting purposes.
Retention of data
The personal data collected from the interviews will be deleted after findings have been reported.
Your rights
The GDPR sets out the rights which individuals have in relation to personal information held about them by data controllers. These rights are listed below, although whether you will be able to exercise each of these rights in a particular case may depend on the purpose for which the data controller is processing the data and the legal basis upon which the processing takes place.
Access to your information
You have the right to request a copy of the personal information about you that we hold.
Further information on how to make a data protection 'subject access request'.
Correcting your information
You have the right to ask us to correct the personal data we hold about you. We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date and you may ask us to correct any personal information about you that you believe does not meet these standards.
Deletion of your information
You have the right to ask us to delete personal information about you where:
- you consider that we no longer require the information for the purposes for which it was obtained
- we are using that information with your consent and you have withdrawn your consent – see Withdrawing consent to using your information below
- you have validly objected to our use of your personal information – see Objecting to how we may use your information above
- our use of your personal information is contrary to law or our other legal obligations
Objecting to how we may use your information
You have the right at any time to require us to stop using your personal information for direct marketing purposes. In addition, where we use your personal information to perform tasks carried out in the public interest then, if you ask us to, we will stop using that personal information unless there are overriding legitimate grounds to continue.
Restricting how we may use your information
In some cases, you may ask us to restrict how we use your personal information. This right might apply, for example, where we are checking the accuracy of personal information about you that we hold or assessing the validity of any objection you have made to our use of your information. The right might also apply where this is no longer a basis for using your personal information, but you don't want us to delete the data. Where this right to validly exercised, we may only use the relevant personal information with your consent, for legal claims or where there are other public interest grounds to do so.
Automated processing
If we use your personal information on an automated basis to make decisions which significantly affect you, you have the right to ask that the decision be reviewed by an individual to whom you may make representations and contest the decision. This right only applies where we use your information with your consent or as part of a contractual relationship with you.
Withdrawing consent to using your information
Where we use your personal information with your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time and we will stop using your personal information for the purposes for which consent was given.
Please contact us in any of the ways set out below if you wish to exercise any of these rights.
Changes to our privacy statement
We keep this privacy statement under regular review and will place any updates on this website. Paper copies of the privacy statement may also be obtained using the contact information below.
This privacy statement was last updated on 31 January 2022.
Complaints
We seek to resolve directly all complaints about how we handle personal information but you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office online at: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.
Or by phone at: 0303 123 1113
Contact information and further advice
If you have any further questions about the way in which we process personal data, or
about how to exercise your rights, please contact the Head of Information Governance
at:
The Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh
EH99 1SP
Telephone: 0131 348 6913
(Calls are welcome through the Text Relay service or in British Sign Language through contactSCOTLAND-BSL.)
Email: [email protected]
Please contact us if you require information in another language or format