Privacy Notice Disclosure Services

This privacy notice tells you about the information we collect from you as customers of the organisations for whom we process PVG and Disclosure applications for or as a lead signatory of that organisation.

What is the purpose of this document?

Volunteer Scotland Disclosure Services is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. This privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal information about you as a customer, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

For the purposes of processing Disclosure and PVG applications, and fulfilling our contract with volunteer involving organisations, Volunteer Scotland Disclosure Services is a “data processor”. The organisation that has obtained your Data for the purpose of the Disclosure or PVG check, or for signatory details, is the “data controller”. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.

This notice applies to all customers of the organisations that we process PVG and Disclosure applications for, and also for details provided by those organisations themselves (e.g. lead signatory details). This notice does not form part of any contract to provide services. We may update this notice at any time.

It is important that you read this notice, together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information.

Data Protection Principles

We will comply with data protection law. This says that the personal information we hold about you must be:

Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.
Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.
Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.
Accurate and kept up to date.
Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.
Kept securely.

The kind of information we hold about you

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

There are “special categories” of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection.

Police Act Disclosure and PVG applicants:

We may collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:

Personal contact details such as name, other names known by, title, addresses, telephone numbers, and personal email addresses
Current and previous addresses
Mother’s maiden/family name name
Date of birth
Town of birth
Gender
Marital status and dependants
Passport number and country of issue
Driving licence number and country of issue
National identity card number and country of issue
National Insurance number
Credit/debit card information
Volunteer role
Volunteer host organisation
Details of authentication reference number for passport, birth certificate, driving licence or other supporting document the applicant provides
Regulatory body code and registration number
Level of PVG membership
PVG scheme record, scheme record update and Police Act disclosure certificate number

We may also collect, store and use the following “special categories” of more sensitive personal information:

Country of birth
Nationality
Information about criminal convictions and offences. For Police Act Disclosure Applicants this can include convictions and alternatives to prosecution; cautions; prescribed court orders; information considered to be ‘unspent’ under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.
Information about criminal convictions and offences. For PVG scheme applicants this can include information confirming whether an individual is ‘under consideration’ or unsuitable for regulated work; convictions and alternatives to prosecution; cautions; prescribed court orders; sex offenders notification requirements; other relevant information relating to suitability to worrk with vulnerable groups; vetting information considered to be ‘unspent’ under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

Individuals working on behalf of organisations registered with VSDS.

Contact details such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses and signatures.

How is your personal information collected?

We typically obtain personal information about PVG scheme and Police Act Disclosure applicants from the organisation that they are making the application through. We obtain information about signatories from the organisation they are a signatory for. We receive additional information from third parties – Disclosure Scotland.

How will we use the information about you?

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:

Where we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you.
Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.

We may also use your personal information in the following situations, which are likely to be rare:

Where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests).
Where it is needed in the public interest [or for official purposes].

Situations in which we will use your personal information

We need all the categories of information in the list above (see The kind of information we hold about you) primarily to enable us to comply with legal obligations. In some cases we may use your personal information to pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties, provided your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. The situations in which we will process your personal information are listed below.

For PVG and Police Act Disclosure Applicants:

Obtaining a PVG scheme record, PVG scheme record update or Police Act Disclosure without cost
Contacting you about a PVG scheme record, PVG scheme record update or Police Act Disclosure application or certificate
Keeping a record of the fact that a check was undertaken on our database (STRAKER)

For signatories/organisations:

Register you as a signatory with Volunteer Scotland Disclosure Services
Contact you about changes to legislation, the PVG and Disclosure Process, or other changes which may have a bearing on the service that we provide or your requirements as a signatory
Store your details on our customer database (CRM – Salesforce and Siteground – Website hosting) to enable us to contact you as above
To contact you to request consent to opt in to our Marketing communications

Some of the above grounds for processing will overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal information.

If you fail to provide personal information

If you fail to provide certain information when requested we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

How we use particularly sensitive personal information

”Special categories” of particularly sensitive personal information require higher levels of protection. We need to have further justification for collecting, storing and using this type of personal information. We may process special categories of personal information in the following circumstances:

Processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, on the basis of Union or Member State law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject
Less commonly, we may process this type of information where it is needed in relation to legal claims or where it is needed to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public.

Our obligations as a data processor

We will use your particularly sensitive personal information in the following ways:

We will use information provided detailing country of birth or nationality on PVG and Police Act Disclosure forms to obtain the required background check in accordance with Disclosure Scotland’s requirements.
We will obtain information on criminal convictions and offences (including information confirming whether an individual is ‘under consideration’ or unsuitable for regulated work; convictions and alternatives to prosecution; cautions; prescribed court orders; sex offenders notification requirements; other relevant information relating to suitability to work with vulnerable groups; vetting information considered to be ‘unspent’ under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974) for the purpose of providing a background check service and providing you with a PVG scheme record, PVG scheme record update or Police Act Disclosure certificate.

Do we need your consent?

We do not need your consent if we use special categories of your personal information in accordance with our written policy to carry out our legal obligations.

Information about criminal convictions

We may only use information relating to criminal convictions where the law allows us to do so. This will usually be where such processing is necessary to carry out our obligations and provided we do so in line with our [data protection policy.

Less commonly, we may use information relating to criminal convictions where it is necessary in relation to legal claims, where it is necessary to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public.

Automated decision-making

We do not envisage that any decisions will be taken about you using automated means, however we will notify you in writing if this position changes.

Data sharing

We may have to share your data with third parties. We require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law.

It is not anticipated that we will share your data outside of the EU. We will notify you if this position changes.

Why might you share my personal information with third parties?

We may share your personal information with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary to administer the service we provide to you or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so.

Which third-party service providers process my personal information?

”Third parties” includes third-party service providers (including contractors and designated agents) and other entities within our group. The following third-party service providers process personal information about you for the following purposes: STRAKER – IT/Database management (STRAKER do not access special category data); Disclosure Scotland – to obtain a background check; SCOTS – Scottish Government IT network; Salesforce – CRM; 123FormBuilder – Online forms builder; WordPress – Forms tool; Siteground – Website hosting; Userlike – web chat service provider (please note a separate Privacy Notice applies where you Contact Us online).

How secure is my information with third-party service providers and other entities in our group?

All our third-party service providers and other entities in the group are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

What about other third parties?

We may share your personal information with other third parties, for example in the context of a possible restructuring of the organisation. We may also need to share your personal information with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.

Transferring information outside the EU

We do not envisage that your personal data will be transferred outside of the EU. We will notify you if this position changes.

Data security

We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information. Details of these measures are available on request.

Third parties will only process your personal information on our instructions and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure.

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. Details of these measures may be obtained from the Disclosure Services Manager.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

Data Retention

How long will you use my information for?

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. [Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal information are available in the data retention schedule]. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you. Otherwise, once you are no longer a customer we will retain and securely destroy your personal information in accordance with our data retention schedule.

Rights of access, correction, erasure and restriction

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your working relationship with us.

Your rights in connection with personal information

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
Request the transferof your personal information to another party.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact the Disclosure Services Manager in writing.

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

Data protection queries

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact the Disclosure Services Manager. You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues.

Changes to this privacy notice

We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please contact the Disclosure Services Manager.