Date of Privacy Notice: February 2023
This privacy 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).
This notice can be updated at any time and we will inform you if this occurs.
It is important that you read this notice, so that you are aware of how and why we are processing your information.
The Government Office for Science is the Data Controller for the use of personal data in this privacy notice.
Why we are collecting your information
- To communicate with GSE members about opportunities in the profession and wider science and engineering community
- To provide organisational Heads of Government Science and Engineering Profession with an up-to-date list of GSE members in their government organisation, to better inform the delivery of our strategy at a local level
- To design and implement workforce strategies and the general management of the GSE profession
- To identify particular skills and experience to aid, identify and facilitate the targeting of talent management or other development initiatives
- To monitor the effectiveness and competitiveness of Civil Service reward packages across the GSE Profession by reference to individual skills, job size and associated remuneration
- To monitor and report management and statistical information to officials across the Civil Service and for use in the public domain including diversity monitoring information
- To report management and statistical information in a non-identifiable aggregated format including diversity monitoring information to the GSE Profession Project Board
- To monitor and understand the career paths of members throughout the GSE Profession
- To monitor and report on outcomes for different characteristic groups
- To undertake detailed statistical analysis including identifying the drivers of successful outcomes
- For online use, via photographs and/or video recordings taken at events for promotional reasons
Your information is collected by:
The Government Science and Engineering Team
Contact E-mail: GSE@Go-Science.gov.uk
The type of personal information we collect
We collect and process the following information:
- Name
- Contact details (work Email address and phone number/s; may include personal email address/phone number)
- Department/Organisation
- Region
- Work pattern
- Age range
- Grade
- Role
- Gender
- Ethnicity
- Disability status
- Additional diversity status information
- Qualifications
- Specialism
- Background
- Photographs
- Videos
How we get the personal information and what we use it for
We get your information:
- From you, when signing up as a member via an online form.
- From you, through your contact with us directly via email or by your completion of an online form that we have shared a link to, for the purpose of requesting information from you.
- From photographs and video recordings that may be taken at any of our events, for promotional purposes. We will normally seek consent in advance, from individuals/groups, to use their images, and offer participants the choice to opt-out. Where a photograph or video is focused on a single individual then we would normally seek that person's explicit consent for its use.
We use the information that you have given us to:
- Identify and contact you for opportunities such as speakers for events, networking, mentoring and task and finish groups.
- Understand members’ backgrounds, technical specialisms and expertise.
- Understand the diverse make-up of a group.
- Identify areas of need and/or preference.
- Garner views/feedback to help develop/improve products/services.
- Help identify where there are issues in the profession, to direct action to resolve them and improve staff experiences and wellbeing.
- Understand the split of members across organisations in the profession and target activities accordingly through individual organisations’ communications channels. This includes sharing of your name and email address with your organisation.
Lawful basis for processing
Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful basis we rely on for processing your information is:
A) Your explicit consent – by providing your personal information you consent to us processing it.
B) We need it to perform a public task in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller. In this case, that the Government Office for Science is responsible for the operation, management and monitoring of Government Science and Engineering Profession members and your data is required to enable Government Office for Science to carry out this task.
Sensitive personal 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 legal basis for processing your sensitive personal data is necessary for:
- reasons of substantial public interest for the exercise of a function of a government department and/or profession
- archiving purposes, scientific or historical research or statistical purposes
The Government Office for Science is responsible for the operation, management and monitoring of Government Science and Engineering and requires your information at the centre to monitor and report on equality and diversity across this profession.
How we store, share and securely destroy your personal information
Your information is securely stored on BEIS IT (Information Technology) infrastructure, in accordance with government security policies and frameworks.
Your information will be shared with:
- Our data processors Microsoft and Amazon web services.
- Organisational Heads of Government Science and Engineering Profession
We will not share or transfer to other third parties unless:
- We expressly indicate that it will be shared. In such situations we will ensure that all parties that will be recipients will be detailed at the point of requesting your information.
- We are required to do so by law, for example by court order or to prevent fraud or other crime.
Your personal information will be retained for no longer than is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected and will be securely destroyed 5 calendar years after the activity is closed or concluded.
Your personal data will be retained for the duration that you are a member of the profession and retained for a further 5 years, before being securely destroyed, to allow for trend analysis over a period of time.
Your data protection rights
Under data protection law, you have rights including:
Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.
Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete. You have the right to ask us to delete any information that is not necessary for our outlined purpose.
Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to object to processing - You have the the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to data portability - You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.
You have the right to withdraw consent to the processing of your personal data at any time.
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.
You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights.
Contact details - How to get in touch
If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can contact us at:
Data Protection Team
Government Office for Science
8th Floor
10 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0NN
Email: contact@go-science.gov.uk
Complaints
You can also complain to the ICO (Information Commissioner) if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.
The ICO’s address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk
