How we use your information
We will use the information you provide in a manner that conforms to the Data Protection Act. We will endeavour to keep your information accurate and up to date and not keep it for longer than is necessary. In some instances the law sets the length of time information has to be kept.
We will not pass any personal data on to third parties, other than those who we process information for on their or our behalf, or because of a legal requirement, and it will only do so, where possible, after we have ensured that sufficient steps have been taken to protect the personal data by the recipient.
We will not disclose any information that you provide ‘in confidence’ to us, to anyone else without your permission, except in the few situations where disclosure is required by law, or where we have good reason to believe that failing to share the information would put someone else at risk. You will be told about this.
Information sharing
We may disclose information to other partners where it is necessary, either to comply with a legal obligation, or where permitted under the Data Protection Act, e.g. where the disclosure is necessary for the purposes of the prevention and/or detection of crime.
Where we need to disclose sensitive or confidential information such as medical details to other partners, we will do so only with your prior explicit consent or where we are legally required to.
We may disclose information when necessary to prevent risk of harm to an individual.
At no time will your information be passed to organisations for marketing or sales purposes or for any commercial use.
Public bodies are required by law to protect the public funds it administers. We may use any of the information you provide to us for the prevention and detection of fraud. We may also share this information with other bodies that are responsible for auditing or administering public funds including the Audit Commission, the Department for Work and Pensions, and other local authorities, HM Revenue and Customs, and the Police.
In addition to undertaking our own data matching to identify errors and potential frauds we are required to take part in national data matching exercises undertaken by the Audit Commission. The use of data by the Audit Commission in a data matching exercise is carried out under its powers in Part 2A of the Audit Commission Act 1998. It does not require the consent of the individuals concerned. Further information is located at the Audit Commission – National Fraud Initiative.
In limited situations we may monitor and record electronic transactions (website, email and telephone conversations). This will only be used to prevent or detect a crime, or investigate or detect the unauthorised use of the telecommunications system and only as permitted by the Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice) (Interception of Communications) Regulations 2000.
Emergency response management
Data matching may also be used to assist the recruiting organisations in responding to emergencies or major accidents, by allowing the recruiting organisations in conjunction with the emergency services, to identify individuals who may need additional support in the event of e.g. an emergency evacuation.
Telephone calls
Ordinarily we will inform you if we record or monitor any telephone calls you make to us. This will be used, to increase your security, for our record keeping of the transaction and for our staff training purposes.
Emails
If you email us we may keep a record of your contact and your email address and the email for our record keeping of the transaction. For security reasons we will not include any confidential information about you in any email we send to you. We would also suggest that you keep the amount of confidential information you send to us via email to a minimum and use our secure online services or by post.
How we protect your information
Our aim is not to be intrusive, and we won’t ask irrelevant or unnecessary questions. The information you provide will be subject to rigorous measures and procedures to make sure it can’t be seen, accessed or disclosed to anyone who shouldn’t see it.
We have a set of information security policies, provide training to staff who handle personal information and treat it as a disciplinary matter if they misuse or do not look after your personal information properly.
We will not keep your information longer than it is needed or where the law states how long this should be kept. We will dispose of paper records or delete any electronic personal information in a secure way. Your data will be stored on computer and/or manual files.
Your rights
You have the right to request that we stop processing your personal data. However, this may cause delays or prevent us delivering a service to you. Where possible we will seek to comply with your request but we may be required to hold or process information to comply with a legal requirement.
You are legally entitled to request access to any information about you that we hold, and a copy.
We try to ensure that any information we hold about you is correct. There may be situations where you find the information we hold is no longer accurate and you have the right to have this corrected.
Please contact East Midlands Shared Services (EMSS) to exercise any of these rights, or if you have a complaint about how your information has been used.
General information about the Data Protection Act – Information Commissioner’s Office
Changes to this privacy notice
We will continually review and update this privacy notice to reflect changes in our services and feedback from service users, as well as to comply with changes in the law.