Guidance

Our Terms of Use and Privacy Notice

Published 3 February 2022

1. Introduction

This terms of use and privacy notice (“Notice”) describes the handling of data, including both personal and commercial data, collected and used by the Trade Remedies Authority (“TRA”) in exercise of the Secretary of State’s duties in relation to trade remedies investigations. This includes communications to us whether in electronic format, paper format or by telephone. By personal data, we mean any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.

The purpose of this Notice is to tell people what information is collected about them, by any/various means; how this information is used; if it is disclosed, and ways in which we protect their privacy.

This Notice only relates to data that we collect and process. We are not responsible for external organisations that may link to our web-pages. For more information about use of your data by external agencies and stakeholders, please see the relevant privacy statement on their web-pages.

2. Why we need to collect and process information

2.1 Legal basis and reasons for processing information

TRA may need to collect, process and/ or share information in order to:

• Carry out its functions as set out under section 13 and Schedule 4 of the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018 (“Taxation Act”) relating to dumping and foreign subsidies, functions relating to increased imports causing serious injury to UK producers conferred by Schedule 5 of the Taxation Act, and functions as set out in the Regulations made under those provisions (the “Regulations”).

• Perform functions, comply with obligations or exercise powers under the:
  • Public Records Acts 1958 and 1967
  • Freedom of Information Act 2000
  • Environmental Information Regulations 2004
  • European General Data Protection Regulation 2016
  • Data Protection Act 2018 (“DPA”)
• Carry out any action necessary or expedient for:
  • corporate administration
  • governance and communications
  • accounting purposes
  • work with the devolved administrations
  • work with MPs
  • work with stakeholders
  • work with other public bodies
  • work with other government departments
  • work with partner organisations
  • work with journalists, lobbyists, charities, survey responders and survey companies, research agencies, academics and external speakers
  • work with consumers and consumer organisations and trade associations, traders, suppliers, contractors; consultants, advisers, HMRC, Government Departments, the courts and legal Counsel
  • work in its capacity as an employer
  • intelligence gathering, including profiling, and case development work.

3. Commercial information

3.1 Submitting confidential and non-confidential information to us

When you take part in a trade remedies investigation, we will ask you to provide information for us to assess. The information you need to provide will depend in which capacity you are involved in the case.

If you request confidentiality when you submit data to us, you must demonstrate that there is good cause for us to treat the information as confidential.

All parties to an investigation should have the opportunity to understand the evidence being considered and defend their own interests. We therefore ask that when you submit confidential documents to us, you accompany them with sufficiently detailed non-confidential versions. We will make these non-confidential versions publicly available. This will maintain confidentiality whilst ensuring the process is fair and transparent.

We may disclose information which we otherwise treat as confidential if this is:

• for a specific purpose and with your consent, or the consent of the person supplying information on your behalf
• for the purpose of court or tribunal proceedings in the United Kingdom relating to the exercise by the Secretary of State of any functions under the Taxation Act or Regulations
• for the purpose of an international dispute relating to the exercise of any functions under the Taxation Act or secondary legislation by us or the Secretary of State; or required or permitted by any other enactment or rule of law

We may also receive information about you from HMRC which helps us carry out our functions relating to trade remedies investigations. When we receive such information, we will not use the information for purposes other than in connection with these functions, or further disclose such information without the consent of HMRC.

4. Using our online Trade Remedies Service

4.1 Information you provide

To take part in an investigation or review or to start an application for a case as an interested party, you will need to create an account with the Trade Remedies Digital Service. You may also want to register on the Trade Remedies Service to input to a case as a contributor. To create an account, you will need to provide your:

• full name
• the name of the organisation you work for
• email address
• organisation’s head office address including country
• password (so you can access your case documents)
• mobile phone number

Your mobile phone number will be used to help you sign into the service. To enable you to sign in to the service for the first time, a code will be sent to the registered mobile to verify your identity.

4.2 How we manage your data on the Trade Remedies Service

During the period in which you compile your documents into a submission, they will be held in the system’s database so that you do not have to complete a submission in one session. We will not have access to the documents at this stage.

Once you have submitted documents to us for consideration, they will be kept as part of the auditable record of the case. We will securely store the information you provide on the service.

We will retain the data you provide for the duration of the case and for the duration of any measures enforced. We will retain the data you provide beyond the life-span of a measure for audit purposes.

5. Personal Information

We only collect, use and share personal data where the law says we can. This is:

• where we have your express consent to process your data for a specific purpose
• where we need your personal data because we have a contract with you, for example a contract of employment
• where we need to process your personal data in order to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations)
• where the law allows us to collect, use, and share the personal data, because it is in the public interest and because we need to do this so that we can carry out our official work.

If you have given us your consent to collect, use, or share your personal data, you may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the validity of how we have collected, used or shared your personal data up to that point.

5.1 When do we collect information about people?

We collect information about people in the following categories:

• visitors to our websites
• people who use our general information services, e.g. who subscribe to our RSS feeds, e-newsletters, social media sites, email alerts or request a publication from us
• people who engage with the TRA, or whose data we are provided with, as part of the carrying out of our functions and related activities
• people who contact us in relation to information requests, complaints and general queries
• job applicants and our current and former employees.

Sometimes we collect your personal data directly from you, but sometimes we collect it from third parties. Where we collect personal data from third parties, it may be from organisations like survey companies, or traders operating in sectors of the market that we are investigating.

Third parties the TRA obtains personal data from include but are not limited to:

• other government departments, public bodies or executive agencies
• foreign governments or authorities
• stakeholders
• HMRC
• overseas exporters or importers
• trade or business associations
• producers and traders
• consumer organisations
• research agencies.

We may also obtain data as part of a submission of evidence by other parties that have registered interest in a case.

5.2 How long we keep your personal data

The law says that we may only keep your personal data for as long as we need it to do our work. For example, if we collect and use personal data to carry out a trade remedies investigation, it is likely that we will need to hold your data while any relevant trade remedies are in force, due to the potential for appeals and review of the measures.

However, it is likely we will no longer need your personal data once the measures (and any appeals and/ or reviews in relation to the goods or the measures concerned) are revoked. When we no longer need your personal data, we securely delete it. In deciding how long we need to keep your personal data for, we also have regard to the time periods recommended to government departments for keeping certain categories of information by The National Archive and our own retention schedule.

6. Your legal rights in relation to personal data

6.1 How to make a request under the DPA

Your rights under the DPA are set out below. If you wish to ask us to restrict how we process your personal data or exercise any of your rights under data protection legislation, you should contact:

Data Protection Officer
Trade Remedies Authority
North Gate House
21-23 Valpy Street
Reading
RG1 1AF

Email: data.protection@traderemedies.gov.uk

6.2 Proof of identity

Before we can deal with your request to exercise your individual rights, we may need to ask you for proof of identity. If so, we will ask you for a photocopy of the identity page of a current passport or current photo driving licence and an original, current utility bill (a gas, electricity, water, or telephone bill, or a credit card or bank statement) containing your name and address. We will return the utility bill to you if you ask us to.

6.3 Time for response and cost

We must answer your request free of charge, without undue delay and certainly within a month of receiving your request.

But if your request is complex, or if you have made several requests, we may extend this time period by a further two months. Where we extend the time period, we must tell you we are going to do this, and why, within one month of receiving your request.

If you make repeated requests, the law allows us to charge you a reasonable fee based on our administrative costs, or to refuse to deal with your requests.

6.4 Electronic requests

Where you make your request by email, unless you ask us not to, we will respond in an electronic form.

6.5 How to complain about the way we handle your request in relation to personal data

If you are unhappy about how we are handling your request to restrict processing of your personal data, you may complain to:

Data Protection Officer
Trade Remedies Authority
North Gate House
21-23 Valpy Street
Reading
RG1 1AF

Email: data.protection@traderemedies.gov.uk

If you are unhappy with the response, you can also contact:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF

Email: casework@ico.org.uk

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

6.6 Right to request information about how personal data is used

You have the right to ask us whether we are collecting, using or sharing your personal data. You may ask us at any time whether we are collecting, using or sharing your personal data, what personal data of yours we have, why we have it and what we are going to do with it. Where we are collecting, using or sharing your personal data, you can ask us for a copy of it.

You may also ask us at any time to delete your personal data (sometimes called the ‘right to be forgotten’), or to correct it where you believe it may be wrong or incomplete, or to stop collecting, using or sharing your personal data, or to collect, use or share it in a more restricted way.

6.7 What we must tell you

Where you have made a request and we are collecting, storing, using or disclosing your personal data, we must tell you what personal data of yours we have; why we have it; what we are doing with it; whether we are sharing it with anyone, and if so, who we are sharing it with; whether we may share it with anyone in the future (including with anyone outside the European economic area and in which case what steps we are taking to keep your personal data safe); and how long we will be keeping your personal data for.

Where we are collecting, storing, using or disclosing your personal data, but have not collected it directly from you, but from a third party, we must tell you who that third party is, when we respond to your request.

6.8 Time for response and cost

We must answer your request and provide you with a copy of your personal data, free of charge, without undue delay and within a month of receiving your request.

But if your request is complex, or if you have made several requests, we may extend this time period by a further two months. Where we extend the time period, we must tell you we are going to do this, and why, within one month of receiving your request.

If you ask us for further copies of your personal data, or you make repeated requests, the law allows us to charge you a reasonable fee based on our administrative costs, or to refuse to deal with your requests.

6.9 Your right to have personal data erased in certain circumstances

Where we are collecting, using, storing or disclosing (processing) your personal data, you may ask us to delete it without undue delay where:

• we no longer need your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it
• where you consented to us having your personal data and have now withdrawn that consent, unless the law allows us to keep your personal data without your consent
• where you have objected to us collecting or handling your personal data
• where we have collected or handled your personal data unlawfully
• where the law says that we must delete your personal data

6.10 What if we have already published your personal data?

If we have agreed to your request to delete your personal data and we have already published it, we will take reasonable steps to notify others who are handling your personal data that you have requested deletion of it and of any copies of it, or links to it. Our ability to notify others may depend on the available technology and the cost to us.

6.11 Do we have to agree to your request?

We may not be able to delete your personal data for legal reasons. For example, where:

• the law requires or allows us to keep the personal data
• we need the personal data so that we can carry out our official work and it is in the public interest for us to keep it
• it is needed for archiving, historical research or statistical purposes
• it is needed for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

6.12 Your right to rectification

Where we are collecting, using, storing or disclosing (processing) your personal data and you believe that the personal data we have is inaccurate, you may ask us to correct it. This is called your right to rectification.

7. Is your personal data incomplete?

You may also ask us to complete any personal data of yours that you believe is incomplete.

7.1 What we must do

Where you have made a request, we must correct your personal data without undue delay.

7.2 What if we have already shared your personal data?

Where we have already shared your personal data with anyone, we will notify them that you have asked us to correct it, unless notification is impossible or would involve a disproportionate effort by us. We must also tell you, if you ask us to, that we have notified the people that we have shared your personal data with.

7.3 Do we always have to agree to your request?

Sometimes the law allows us to restrict your right to rectification. For example, for reasons of:

• national security
• defence
• public security
• the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties
• protecting economic or financial interests, monetary, budgetary and taxation matters, public health and social security
• monitoring, inspection or regulatory functions
• protecting you or the rights of others
• the enforcement of civil claims.

7.4 Right to restrict or object to processing of personal data in certain circumstances

You have a right to block the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances. This right arises if you are disputing the accuracy of personal data, if you have raised an objection to processing, if processing of personal data is unlawful and you oppose erasure and request restriction instead or if the personal data is no longer required by us but you require the personal data to be retained to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim.

Additionally, where we are collecting, using, storing or disclosing (processing) your personal data because we need it to carry out our official work (including if we are profiling your behaviour online or handling your personal data for archiving, historical research or statistical purposes) you may object at any time.

7.5 What we must do

If you object, we must stop collecting, using, storing or disclosing your personal data unless the law says that we can carry on.

For example, where:

• we can show that there are compelling and lawful reasons for us to carry on which we consider outweigh your right to object
• we need the personal data to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim

7.6 Right to data portability

In certain circumstances you can request to receive a copy of your personal data in a commonly used electronic format. This right only applies to personal data that you have provided to us (for example by completing a form or providing information through a website). The right to data portability only applies if the processing is based on your consent or if the personal data must be processed for the performance of a contract and the processing is carried out by automated means (i.e. electronically).

Right not to be subject to automated decisions where the decision produces a legal effect or a similarly significant effect You have a right not to be subject to a decision which is based on automated processing where the decision will produce a legal effect or a similarly significant effect on you.

Right to ask a Court to consider how we have dealt with your request You also have the right to ask a Court to consider whether we have dealt properly with your request.

8. Freedom of Information Requests

8.1 How to make a Freedom of Information request to us

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 provides a right of access to a wide range of information held by public authorities. The purpose is to promote greater openness and accountability.

8.2 Our duty to you

The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000 requires us to:

• provide information to you about the TRA through a publication scheme
• provide a guide to this information
• respond appropriately to requests for information

8.3 Before you request information from us

Check whether the information you seek is already available. We publish information on our website and you may well find the answer to your question is already on the website. We have a publication scheme setting out what information we currently release or expect to release.

8.4 Who can request information?

Anyone, anywhere in the world, can make a FOI request to us.

8.5 What can I request?

You can seek any recorded information that you think we may hold. If the information is environmental, we will respond according to the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) 2004.

You do not have to know whether the information you want is covered by the EIR or the FOI Act. When you make a request, we will decide which law applies. If the information is your own personal data, then you should make a subject access request under the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018, and not under the FOI Act. See above for how to make DPA requests.

8.6 How do I request information?

Your request must be in writing and can be either posted or emailed to us. For postal requests, please send to the following address:

Knowledge and Information Rights
Trade Remedies Authority
North Gate House
21-23 Valpy Street
Reading
RG1 1AF

Email: informationrights@traderemedies.gov.uk

Please write “Freedom of Information” in the subject line.

8.7 What information must I include in my request?

The FOI Act requires certain information to be supplied before we can respond to your request:

• your real name – we do not have to respond to requests submitted under a pseudonym
• your address (email addresses are acceptable)
• a description of the information you wish to obtain
• any preferences for the format in which you wish to receive the information e.g. electronic or hard copy. We will endeavour to meet your preferences but cannot guarantee that we will be able to.

8.8 What do I not need to do?

• explicitly mention the FOI Act, although it may help to do so
• know whether the information is covered by the FOI Act or the EIR as we will decide this;
• say why you want the information;
• specify particular documents. You have a right to information, however it is recorded.

8.9 What happens when my request is received?

We have a legal obligation to reply to your FOI request and must do so within 20 working days of receipt. We will do one of the following:

• supply you with the information you requested
• inform you that we don’t hold the information and, if we are able, advise you who does
• inform you that your request will exceed the cost limit specified in the Fees Regulations and invite you to submit a narrower request
• inform you that we hold the information requested but refuse to provide all or part of it and explain why, citing one or more of the exemptions from the FOI Act
• inform you that we are refusing your request on the basis it is repeated or vexatious
• inform you that we need more time to consider the public interest test in relation to your request and let you know when to expect a further response. This should not be later than 40 working days after receipt of your request.

8.10 What can I do if I am unhappy with the reply I receive or the way my request was handled?

You can ask us for an internal review of your FOI request. When you write to us requesting an internal review, we will acknowledge your letter and tell you how long we think the review will take. We aim to complete internal reviews within 20 working days, although more cases that are complex may take longer. Where internal reviews go over 20 working days, we will keep you informed of progress.

If, after an internal review, you are still not satisfied, you can then complain to the Information Commissioner (ICO). Details of how to do this are available at the ICO website.

Full details of how to ask us for an internal review will be included in our initial reply to your FOI request. Details of how to complain further to the Information Commissioner will be included in our response to your internal review request.