Privacy Policy

Privacy Notice for House of Lords Appointments Commission

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

YOUR DATA

Purpose

The purpose(s) for which we are processing your personal data are to: 

• process nomination forms to vet, for propriety, nominations to the House made by the political parties;
• process application forms to make recommendations for appointment of non-party-political crossbench peers;
• provide advice on general enquiries and 
• gather diversity and demographics for equality and monitoring purposes.

The data

We will process the following personal and special category data:

• Name
• Date of birth
• Home address
• Email address
• Telephone number
• Employment history and achievements
• National insurance number
• Media presence
• Political involvement
• Political donations
• Place of domicile for tax purposes.

We process your personal data to conduct open source searches and share the required information with vetting bodies to obtain probity information, including criminal records and tax information.

Applicants are invited to voluntarily provide diversity Information including: 

• Gender
• Ethnic group
• Religion
• Sexual orientation
• Regional diversity
• Socio-economic background.

 

Legal basis of processing

The legal basis for processing your personal data is where 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 following the creation of the House of Lords Appointments Commission by the then Prime Minister in May 2000. It is an advisory non-departmental body.

The condition for processing your special category and criminal offence data is where 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 to vet and assess propriety/suitability following nomination to the House of Lords;
• equality of opportunity or treatment by informing the Commission on the demographics of individuals to better understand diversity and identify gaps or areas of improvements of individuals applying to the House of Lords;

Recipients

Your personal data will be shared by us with vetting bodies to obtain information relating to criminal records and tax information.

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

Vetting reports for individuals subsequently appointed to the House of Lords	Retain while the individual is a sitting peer. Destroy 1 year after the individual is no longer a peer.
Vetting reports for individuals not subsequently appointed to the House of Lords	Destroy 1 year after vetting consent form received.
Vetting information provided by vetting bodies	Destroy 1 year after vetting consent form received.
Correspondence to/from the Commission	Destroy 7 years after the document is sent/received
Crossbench peerage applications of individuals who have not been appointed.	Destroy 1 year after the applicant has been rejected.
Crossbench peerage application of individuals who are subsequently appointed.	Retain while the individual is a sitting peer. Destroy 1 year after the individual is no longer a peer.
Chair briefings and advice for members	Destroy 7 years after provision.
Diversity data	Separated and stored in an anonymised format.

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.

You have the right to request that any inaccuracies in your personal data are rectified without delay.

You have the right to request that any incomplete personal data are completed, including by means of a supplementary statement.

You have the right to request that your personal data are erased if there is no longer a justification for them to be processed.

You have the right in certain circumstances (for example, where accuracy is contested) to request that the processing of your personal data is restricted.

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data where it is processed for direct marketing purposes. 

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data.

Under the UK GDPR, we may withhold some or all of your personal information if an exemption applies.

INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

As your personal data is stored on our Corporate 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, reliance on Standard Contractual Clauses, or reliance on a UK International Data Transfer Agreement.

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, or 0303 123 1113, or 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, or 0207 276 1234, or you can use this webform.

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.