Policy paper

Migration Advisory Committee privacy information notice

Published 13 April 2022

© Crown copyright 2022

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/migration-advisory-committee-privacy-information-notice/migration-advisory-committee-privacy-information-notice

Data protection law in the UK changed on 25 May 2018[footnote 1]. This notice reflects your rights under the new laws and lets you know how we will look after and use your personal information.

Contact details

Migration Advisory Committee
2nd Floor Peel
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

Personal information we collect

We currently collect and process the following information:

  • what you tell us about yourself (for example, name and contact details)
  • what we learn about you as you engage with the MAC, and
  • what others share with us to fulfil their legal obligations or help prevent abuse of the immigration system and/or prevent and detect crime

It also covers what information we may share with other organisations.

How we get the personal information and why we have it

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons:

  • policy analysis
  • research
  • stakeholder engagement
  • staffing and personnel management

Or processed as part of:

  • performing a public task

We are only allowed to use, gather, and share personal information where we have an appropriate lawful basis to do so under the UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR) or the Data Protection Act 2018.

The MAC collects and processes personal information to fulfil its official functions. We will only use personal information when the law allows us to and where it is necessary and proportionate to do so.

The lawful basis for the processing of your data will, in most cases, be Article 6(1)(e) of the (UK GDPR) – that is, that the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest.

At points, we also process special categories of personal data on the basis of Article 9(2)(g) of the UK GDPR, where the processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest. This may include information about political beliefs, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, and biometrics.

If we have asked you to provide your consent, in order to process your personal data, you also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. When we ask for your consent, we will tell you how we will process your data, how long we will keep it for and the steps we will take to delete it. We will also outline the steps we will take if you decide to withdraw consent and explain your data protection rights.

Examples of ways in which we may process your personal information include when:

  • you submit a response to a MAC Call for Evidence or attend a MAC stakeholder event

We may also request information from third parties. For example, this might be for the purposes of research and analysis. This may involve, for example:

  • obtaining data relevant to policy formation from the Home Office
  • obtaining data from other government departments – these may include HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Department for Education (DfE)

We may share this information with other third parties with whom we have directly contracted to undertake relevant work for a time-limited and specific purpose.

We may use your personal information (for example, email address and mobile number) to contact you regarding research related to immigration matters, analysis, stakeholder events or to follow-up on information you have provided to us.

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:

(a) Your consent. You can remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting mac@homeoffice.gov.uk

(b) We need it to perform a public task

How we store your personal information

Your information is securely stored on appropriately accredited secure systems. We have a duty to safeguard and ensure the security of your personal information. We do that by having systems and policies in place to limit access to your information and prevent unauthorised disclosure. Staff who access personal information must have appropriate security clearance and a business need for accessing the information, and their activity is subject to audit and review.

We will keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary, for the permitted purposes it was collected for. We will then dispose your information by deleting the data. We continue to keep retention periods under review.

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
  • 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 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 are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

If you wish to make a request, please contact us at: mac@homeoffice.gov.uk

Postal applications may be made at:

Migration Advisory Committee
2nd Floor Peel
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

How to complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at:

Data Protection Officer
Peel Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

You can also complain to the ICO 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

  1. Information Commissioner’s Office - About the DPA 2018 ↩

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