Website Privacy Statement

Privacy Notice for Equality and Advisory and Support Service (EASS)

This notice sets out how we will use your personal data, and your rights. It is made under Articles 13 and/or 14 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

YOUR DATA

The Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) is a helpline for individuals in England, Scotland and Wales who feel they may have suffered discrimination or had their human rights infringed.

The purposes for which we are processing your personal data are:

• to provide free information, advice and support to help people solve problems informally;
• to make referrals to third parties including, but not limited to, the Equality & Human Rights Commission, Disability Rights UK and Advocate, but only with your explicit consent;
• to conduct high level anonymised trending data to determine any patterns or developing concerns across the UK.

We will process the following personal data:

• Full name
• Date of birth/Age
• Address
• Location data
• Email address
• Telephone number
• Employment details
• Audio recordings
• Religious or philosophical belief
• Racial or ethnic origin
• Health
• Sex life or sexual orientation
• Political opinions
• All protected characteristics

Legal basis of processing

The legal basis for processing your personal data is where processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller. In this case, to provide free information, advice and support to individuals in England, Scotland and Wales who feel they may have suffered discrimination or had their human rights infringed.

Special category data is personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person's sex life or sexual orientation.

The condition for processing your sensitive personal data is where:

- processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest for the exercise of a function of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown, or a government department; the exercise of a function conferred on a person by an enactment; or the exercise of a function of either House of Parliament.

- processing is of data concerning ethnicity, religious or philosophical belief, health including disability or sexual orientation, and it is necessary for the purposes of identifying or keeping under review the existence or absence of equality of opportunity or treatment between groups of people with a view to enabling such equality to be promoted or maintained.

- you have freely and explicitly given your consent

- It is necessary for archiving purposes, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes, and it is in the public interest.

Recipients

Your personal data may, with your consent, be shared by us with the Equality & Human Rights Commission, Disability Rights UK and Advocate.

As your personal data will be stored on our IT infrastructure it will also be shared with our data processors who provide email, and document management and storage services.

Retention

Your personal data will be kept for 2 years from the date that the record was last accessed. This is to ensure that ongoing issues have the full 2-year accessibility period. The record is then deleted on the first working day of the month following that 2 year period.

YOUR RIGHTS

You have the right to request information about how your personal data are processed, and to request a copy of that personal data.

You have the right to request that any inaccuracies in your personal data are rectified without delay.

You have the right to request that any incomplete personal data are completed, including by means of a supplementary statement.

You have the right to request that your personal data are erased if there is no longer a justification for them to be processed.

You have the right in certain circumstances (for example, where accuracy is contested) to request that the processing of your personal data is restricted.

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data where it is processed for direct marketing purposes.

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data.

You have the right to request a copy of any personal data you have provided, and for this to be provided in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.

INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

As your personal data is stored on our Corporate IT infrastructure, and shared with our data processors, it may be transferred and stored securely outside the UK. Where that is the case it will be subject to equivalent legal protection through an adequacy decision, reliance on Standard Contractual Clauses, or reliance on a UK International Data Transfer Agreement

COMPLAINTS

If you consider that your personal data has been misused or mishandled, you may make a complaint to the Information Commissioner, who is an independent regulator. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, or 0303 123 1113, or icocasework@ico.org.uk. Any complaint to the Information Commissioner is without prejudice to your right to seek redress through the courts.

CONTACT DETAILS

The data controller for your personal data is the Cabinet Office. The contact details for the data controller are: Cabinet Office, 70 Whitehall, London, SW1A 2AS, or 0207 276 1234, or you can use this webform.

The contact details for the data controller’s Data Protection Officer are: dpo@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.

The Data Protection Officer provides independent advice and monitoring of Cabinet Office’s use of personal information.