Guidance

Civil Service Mediation Service privacy notice

Updated 11 September 2023

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 (GDPR).

Civil Service Mediation Service is operated by the Government People Group (GPG) based within the Cabinet Office.

We provide expert Human Resources (HR) services to our customers, Civil Service (CS) departments.

Your data

The information we process will have been provided by you or your manager on a Mediation Referral Form or the CSMS Mediator Registration document.

Through this form we process the following personal data:

• name
• contact details, including email address and telephone number
• employment status, grade and work pattern
• location
• health, in relation to any reasonable adjustments required in order to attend mediation.
• line manager name, contact details and grade

As an expert HR service, we support the government workforce and help departments and professions to build a modern, effective Civil Service.

Purpose

The purpose of processing your personal data is to support a mediation request by identifying trained mediators from other government departments, and to make any reasonable adjustments.

Legal basis of processing

The lawful basis for processing your personal data is that it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.

Civil Service Mediation Service aims to deliver prompt employee conflict resolution. We directly support the Cabinet Office in delivering the priority of driving efficiencies and reforms that will make government work better. As part of the GPG function, we also support the government workforce and help departments and professions to build a modern, effective Civil Service.

We process your health data on the following basis:

• it is necessary for the purposes of performing or exercising our obligations as the controller to provide reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010.

The condition for sensitive processing is Data Protection Act 2018, Schedule 1, paragraph 1.

Recipients

Some of your personal data supplied through the Mediation Referral Form will be shared with Mediators in other government departments if they are required to support the mediation request from your department. This will, in some circumstances, involve sharing special categories of personal data. The data is held securely and accessed by, and disclosed to, individuals only for the purposes of managing this mediation. Government departments and executive agencies that use the Civil Service Mediation Service have agreed and signed a Memorandum of Understanding data sharing agreement that protects the data of the data subjects.

All health information will only be used for reasonable adjustment purposes. Access is restricted to Civil Service Mediation Service staff involved in processing and monitoring the data. No information will be published or used in any way that allows individuals to be identified.

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 to us.

Retention

Your personal data will be kept by us for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes of the mediation request. Once mediation is complete, we will delete your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we will use such information without further notice to you.

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.

International transfers

As your personal data is stored on our IT infrastructure, and shared with our 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 or the use of Standard Contractual Clauses or 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 Contact the Cabinet Office

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.