Guidance

Privacy notice for government transparency data

Published 29 April 2019

1. Your data

1.1 Purpose

The purpose for which we are processing your personal data is publishing transparency data in accordance with government commitments, including:

  • publishing directly, on behalf of Cabinet Office, or for the whole of government
  • quality assurance of data shared with us by other government departments that they then publish themselves as transparency data
  • maintaining a record of transparency data that has been published
  • exploring the potential for new or amended transparency approaches or commitments, for internal review

1.2 The data

We will process the following personal data: names, pay, job titles, employers, email addresses, phone numbers.

Data about the political affiliations of Ministers and Special Advisers will be inferred through role appointments and their membership of a political party.

Data about trade union membership may be shared with us in the process of departments preparing data related to public sector workforces.

The legal basis for processing your personal data is 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 data controller. In this case that is ensuring transparency and accountability of government.

The legal basis for processing your sensitive personal data about political affiliation or trade union membership is it is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest for the exercise of a function of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown, or a government department.

1.4 Where personal data have not been obtained from you

Your personal data were obtained by us from your department.

1.5 Recipients

Your personal data will be shared by us with the following external parties:

  • transparency data will be disclosed with the general public
  • 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

1.6 Retention

Data that has been published as transparency data will be retained indefinitely for the purposes of historical analysis and archiving.

Data that has been collected in the process of preparing, publishing or measuring engagement with data will be retained for six years.

2. Your rights

You have the right:

  • to object to the processing of your personal data
  • to request information about how your personal data are processed, and to request a copy of that personal data
  • to request that any inaccuracies in your personal data are rectified without delay
  • to request that any incomplete personal data are completed, including by means of a supplementary statement
  • to request that your personal data are erased if there is no longer a justification for them to be processed
  • in certain circumstances (for example, where accuracy is contested), to request that the processing of your personal data is restricted
  • to object to the processing of your personal data where it is processed for direct marketing purposes

3. International transfers

As your personal data is stored on our IT infrastructure, and shared with our data processors, it may be transferred and stored securely outside the European Union. Where that is the case it will be subject to equivalent legal protection through the use of Model Contract Clauses.

4. 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

Telephone: 0303 123 1113
casework@ico.org.uk

Any complaint to the Information Commissioner is without prejudice to your right to seek redress through the courts.

5. 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

Public Enquiries: Online Contact Form

The Data Protection Officer provides independent advice and monitoring of Cabinet Office’s use of personal information.

The contact details for the data controller’s Data Protection Officer are: dpo@cabinetoffice.gov.uk