Guidance

Privacy notice for the Equality Hub's public consultation platform

Published 28 February 2022

This privacy notice sets out your rights and how we will use your personal data. It is made under Articles 13 and 14 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

This privacy notice covers public consultations on the platform Dialogue.

Purpose

The purpose for which we are processing your personal data is to enable the public or specific groups of stakeholders to engage in discussion about a particular policy issue, and have their views heard by policymakers.

The data

We will process the following personal data: name and email address to set you up on the consultation platform.

Additional specific privacy notices will be provided to cover any further personal data collection.

Our consultation platform provider will also collect your IP address. See their privacy notice.

The legal basis for processing your personal data is:

  • processing 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 enabling the public or specific groups of stakeholders to engage in discussion about a particular policy issue, and have their views heard by policymakers

 If sensitive (special category) personal data is processed

Sensitive personal data is personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation. If a consultation exercise involves the collection of personal data there will be a specific privacy notice to cover it.

In the case that the listening platform is used to process sensitive personal data, then another risk assessment will be required. In that case, the legal basis for processing the sensitive personal data will be:

  • processing 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; the exercise of a function conferred on a person by an enactment; or the exercise of a function of either House of Parliament. The function is consulting on departmental policies or proposals, or obtaining opinion data, in order to develop good effective policies for and with those that they affect.
  • processing is of data concerning ethnicity, religious or philosophical belief, health including disability or sexual orientation, and it is necessary for the purposes of identifying or keeping under review the existence or absence of equality of opportunity or treatment between groups of people with a view to enabling such equality to be promoted or maintained.

Recipients

Your personal data will be shared by us with our third party data processor that provides the consultation platform.

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.

Retention

We will store your personal data for as long as the consultation platform is operational and/or as long as you continue to be involved in providing feedback and ideas about government policy. If you ask to be removed, we will do so within 60 days, and if the platform ceases to be operational we will delete it within the standard Cabinet office retention period.

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

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 UK.

Where that is the case it will be subject to equivalent legal protection through an adequacy decision or reliance on Standard Contractual Clauses.

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
0303 123 1113
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
0207 276 1234
equalityhub@mail1.citizenspace.com

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.