Guidance

LRS privacy notice

Updated 24 May 2018

Privacy notice: guidance for training and learning providers

Overview

To meet the requirements of the data protection legislation, schools, colleges and learning/training institutes are responsible for issuing a copy of the privacy notice to learners and/or parents/guardians summarising the information held on record about them, why it is held and the third parties the data may be shared.

The Learning Records Service provides 2 versions of the privacy notice text: as a minimum, tier 1 notice wording should be included in the learning providers / learning advisors / awarding organisations’ own privacy notice where the organisation has a direct relationship with the learner.

Privacy notice for pupils, students, learners and trainees

1. Tier 1 privacy notice text

The information you supply is used by the Education and Skills Funding Agency, an executive agency of the Department for Education (DfE), to issue you with a Unique Learner Number (ULN) and to create your Personal Learning Record, as part of the functions of the DfE. For more information about how your information is processed, and to access your Personal Learning Record, please refer to: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lrs-privacy-notices

2. Tier 2 privacy notice text

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) is an executive agency of the Department for Education (DfE). This privacy notice explains how we use your personal information. For the purposes of relevant data protection legislation, the DfE is the data controller for personal information processed.

How we use your personal information

The Learning Records Service (LRS) is operated by the ESFA. The LRS collects information about learners registering for relevant post-14 qualifications, for example:

• GCSEs and A-Levels
• Entry to Employment Certificates
• Regulated Qualifications Frameworks
• Welsh Baccalaureate and associated units

The LRS uses your information to:

• issue you with a Unique Learner Number (ULN)
• create your Personal Learning Record (PLR)

The ULN enables education and training sector organisations, and Awarding Organisations regulated by Ofqual in England, Qualifications in Wales (QiW) in Wales and CCEA in Northern Ireland, to share information about participation and achievement in a consistent and approved manner, promoting good information management practice, and helping to improve accuracy and efficiency. It benefits you through enhancing the application processes to Awarding Organisations, learning providers, learning advisors and other third parties.

The PLR stores your education and training participation and achievement information collected directly from educational institutions and other bodies.

How we collect your personal information

The ESFA collects information from:

• DfE, schools and training / learning providers
• information provided by you when enrolling with the training/learning provider
• qualification/unit data held by Ofqual and Qualifications in Wales (QiW)
• participation and achievement data held by the Welsh Government
• accredited achievement data supplied by awarding organisations

How we share your personal information  

All organisations that have control of personal data about you and that we store in the LRS are required to register with the Information Commissioner’s Office and to handle your information in accordance with the latest data protection legislation.

The LRS is accessible by organisations under agreement with the DfE. Your personal information is only accessed through the LRS by organisations linked to your education and training, including those organisations specified in Regulations made under section 537A of the Education Act.

Awarding organisations are able to access limited achievement data that we hold about you, in order to verify its accuracy.

How long we will keep your personal information

We will only keep your personal information for as long as we need it after which it will be securely destroyed. Your personal information stored in the Personal Learning Record is retained for 66 years. We may need to keep your other personal information where held indefinitely for research and statistical purposes.

Your data protection rights

You have the right:

• to ask us for access to information about you that we hold
• to have your personal data rectified, if it is inaccurate or incomplete
• to request the deletion or removal of personal data where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing
• to restrict our processing of your personal data (i.e. permitting its storage but no further processing)
• to object to direct marketing (including profiling) and processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics
• not to be subject to decisions based purely on automated processing where it produces a legal or similarly significant effect on you

If you need to contact us regarding any of the above, please do so via the DfE site.

Contacting us about your information

If you would like:

• more information about how we process your personal information or your data protection rights
• to make a request about your information – for example to request a copy of your information or to ask for your information to be changed

Please follow the guidance on the how to access your personal learning record.

If you wish to complain about our handling of your information or contact our Data Protection Officer, you can use our secure online contact form or write to:

Ministerial and Public Communications Division
Department for Education
Piccadilly Gate
Store Street
Manchester
M1 2WD