Privacy Policy | Commissioner for Older People for Northern Ireland

How we use your information

This privacy notice tells you what to expect when the Commissioner for Older People (COPNI) collects personal information. It applies to information we collect about:

Visitors to our website
People who use our services, e.g. subscribers to our newsletter and mailing lists
People who contact us to request general and legal advice, guidance and assistance
Job applicants and our current and former employees.

Our commitment to your privacy

COPNI recognise the importance of protecting personal and confidential information and takes care to meet our legal duties. COPNI puts in place all reasonable technical, security and procedural controls required to protect your personal information.

Visitors to our website

When someone visits www.copni.org.uk we use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site and which items have been downloaded. We use this data to regularly improve the value of the materials available online. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify any individual. We do not make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be honest and clear about this. When we collect personal information, we will say we are doing so, explain what we intend to do with it and seek the consent of the individual to retain and use it.

Google Analytics data will only be collected if the user consents via the cookie bar.

Security and Performance

We also use a third party service to maintain the security and performance of our website. To deliver this service it processes the IP addresses of visitors to our website.

Use of cookies

A cookie is a small data file that websites can write to your hard drive when you visit them. A cookie can contain information, such as a unique user identifier, that the site uses to track your visit. This website uses cookies to uniquely identify all users visiting the site.

Many people worry that cookies threaten their privacy and might affect the performance or function of their computer. While they can be used in all kinds of ways by server-based applications, they pose no risk to you as a user. Cookies cannot be used to obtain information about your system or to add you to any mailing lists. They are used to make browsing more efficient. If you have disabled cookies on your computer access to some areas of the COPNI website may be restricted.

Although we use cookies to uniquely identify the user, this is done via a randomly generated user ID and session ID. This preserves the user's anonymity.

People who contact us via social media

If you send us a private or direct message via social media, the message will be stored in line with the specific social media platform's policy. It will not be shared with any other organisation without your prior consent.

Information collected for mailing lists

COPNI maintains several email lists to keep subscribers (registered users, the press, professional institutions and other interested parties) informed about new publications.

Some users join our mailing lists voluntarily via email or by signing up on our website. Users will be contacted to ask for their permission to be added to our mailing list.

We retain only your email address in order to notify you of news, publications and events. We do not sell, rent, loan, share, trade or lease email addresses to any third party.

Information will be removed from our databases on your request or when details are found to be inaccurate.

Information collected about people who use our services

People who call our office

When you phone us we collect Calling Line Identification (CLI) information. We use this information to improve efficiency and effectiveness. This means your telephone number will be collected by our IT provider and retained for a period of one year.

When you phone our information and assistance line (02890 890892), we will read a data protection statement to you before taking details about why you are calling. This statement will explain what information we will ask you for and what will happen to the information you provide to us.

You will then be asked to provide general details about your enquiry. You may be signposted to another organisation which is better placed to assist you or your details may be passed onto our legal casework team to provide you with more detailed advice or guidance. Your personal information will be retained by us and used for the following purposes:

Equality monitoring in an anonymous format;
Learning from themes from casework;
Research and project work carried out by this office and
The preparation and submission of statistics and content of reports to our departmental sponsor body and other government bodies as required.

Your personal information will be kept in hard copy and digital format in line with our retention policy. It will be retained in a secure environment and access to it will be controlled and restricted.

People who email our office

We use Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt and protect email traffic. If your email service does not support TLS, you should be aware that any emails we send or receive may not be protected in transit.

We will also monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure any email you send is within the bounds of law.

When you email the COPNI office (info@copni.org), your email will be dealt with in the following way. An acknowledgement will be sent to you, and depending on the urgency of the enquiry, we will aim to come back to you as soon as is possible and in any event within 2 working days. If your query is urgent, we would suggest that you telephone us rather than email if possible.

You will be contacted, either by email or by telephone (if you have provided a contact telephone number) by a member of our staff. You will be asked to provide additional general details about your enquiry. You may be signposted to another organisation which is better placed to assist you or your details may be passed onto our legal casework team to provide more detailed advice or guidance. Your personal information will be retained by us and used for the following purposes:

Equality monitoring in an anonymous format;
Learning from themes from casework;
Research and project work carried out by this office and
The preparation and submission of statistics and content of reports to our departmental sponsor body and other government bodies as required.

Legal Casework

COPNI’s legal team provide detailed advice and guidance and manage legal casework which relates to individual older people. Before we are able to take on a case on your behalf, you will be required to sign a Consent Form which sets out how we will collect, use and store your information and what steps we will take to act on your behalf.

By signing this form you agree that your personal information can be shared with other impacted, or potentially impacted, parties to your case. Your personal information will be retained by us and used for the following purposes:

Learning from themes from casework
Research and project work carried out by this office
The preparation and submission of statistics and content of reports to our departmental sponsor body and other government bodies as required.

Job applicants, current and former employees

COPNI is the data controller for the information you provide during the recruitment process unless otherwise stated. If you have any queries about the process or how we handle your information please contact us at recrutiment@copni.org.

What will we do with the information you provide to us?

All of the information you provide during the recruitment process will only be used for the purpose of progressing your application, or to fulfil legal or regulatory requirements if necessary.

We will not share any of the information you provide during the recruitment process with any third parties for marketing purposes or store any of your information outside of the European Economic Area. The information you provide will be held securely by us whether the information is in hard copy or digital format.

We will use the contact details you provide to us to contact you to progress your application. We will use the other information you provide to assess your suitability for the role you have applied for.

What information do we ask for, and why?

We do not collect more information than we need to fulfil our stated purposes and will not retain it for longer than is necessary and in accordance with our Retention Policy.

The information we ask for is used to assess your suitability for employment. You do not have to provide what we ask for but it can affect your application if you do not.

Application Stage

We ask you for your personal details including name and contact details. We will also ask you about your previous experience, education, work history, referees and for answers to questions relevant to this role you have applied for. The Human Resources Manager will have access to all of this information.

You will also be asked to provide equal opportunities information. Failure to provide this information will result in your application being rejected. This information will not be made available to any COPNI staff other than the Human Resources Manager The shortlisting/interview panel will have no access to this information. Any information you do provide will be used only to monitor, produce and report equal opportunities statistics to the relevant authorities on an anonymised basis.

Shortlisting

Our shortlisting panel will use the information provided by you in your application to shortlist applicants for interview. They will not be provided with your equal opportunities information.

Assessments

You may be invited to participate in assessment days, complete tests or occupational personality profile questionnaires or make presentations and attend an interview (or a combination of these). Information will be generated by you and by us. For example, you might complete a written test and we will take interview notes. This information will be held by COPNI for the period stated in our Retention Policy.

Conditional Offer

If we make a conditional offer of employment we will ask you for information so that we can carry out pre-employment checks. You must successfully complete pre-employment checks to progress to a final offer for a job in COPNI. We are required to confirm the identity of our staff, their right to work in the United Kingdom and seek assurances as to their trustworthiness, integrity and reliability.

You will therefore be required to provide:

Proof of your identity – you will asked to provide original documents, we will take copies and ensure the safe return of original documents to you;
Proof of your qualifications – you will be asked to provide original documents, we will take copies and ensure the safe return of original documents to you;
You will be asked to complete a criminal records declaration to declare any unspent convictions;
You will be required to complete an AccessNI vetting application form which will verify your declaration of unspent convictions;
We will contact your referees, using the details you provide in your application, to obtain references;
We will also ask you to complete a questionnaire about your health. This is to establish your fitness to work.

If we make a final offer, we will also ask you for the following:

Bank details – to process salary payments
Emergency contact details – so we know who to contact in case you have an emergency at work.

PAMS

If you accept a final offer from us, some of your personal records will be held on PAMS which is an internal human resources computer system which can only be accessed by the Human Resources Manager. Categories of information held on PAMS include personal details, next of kin details, equality monitoring information, attendance and leave records, maternity leave details and training and development records.

Health Management

When required in the management of the health of employees, COPNI uses an external health management/occupational health service provider. Should there be any queries in relation to your fitness to undertake the work that you have been offered, or if there are any adjustments which may be required we will complete a health assessment questionnaire and ask you to attend occupational health.

How long is the information retained for?

If you are successful in a competition for employment at COPNI, the information you provide during the application process will be retained by us as part of your employee file for the duration of your employment plus 7 years following the end of your employment. This includes your criminal records declaration, fitness to work, records of any security checks and references.

If you are unsuccessful at any stage of the process, the information you have provided until that point will be retained for 3 years from the closure of the campaign.

Information generated throughout the assessment process, for example interview notes, is retained by us for 3 years following the closure of the campaign.

Equal opportunities information is retained for 3 years following the closure of the campaign whether you are successful or not.

How we make decisions about recruitment?

Final recruitment decisions are made by the interview panel. All of the information gathered during the application process is taken into account.

You are able to ask about decisions made about your application by speaking to the Human Resources Manager or by emailing recrutiment@copni.org.

Access to personal information

We try to be as open as it can be in terms of giving you access to their personal information. You can find out if we hold any personal information by making a ‘subject access request’ under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). When we receive your request we will respond within 30 days.

Your rights

You have the right to request a copy of the personal information that we hold about you.
You have the right to have any inaccuracies corrected.
You have the right to object to our use of your personal information.
You have the right to erasure (or to be forgotten).
You have the right to get information from us in a format that can be easily re-used.
You have the right to complain

Complaints or queries

We aim to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information, and we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures.

This privacy policy was drafted to be easy to understand and it does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of our collection and use of personal information.

How to contact us

This privacy notice tells you what to expect when we collect personal information.

All information collected will be kept strictly confidential and will not be sold, leased or rented to parties outside of our organisation. We will not disclose your information to third parties not involved in any transaction process, or use it for other purposes, such as unsolicited mailings. If you want to request information about our privacy policy, make a complaint or request a copy of information we hold about you, you can email us, phone us or write to us at:

The Office of the Commissioner for Older People for Northern Ireland
Equality House
7-9 Shaftesbury Square
Belfast
BT2 7DP
Tel: 02890 890 892
Email: info@copni.org

You can also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

Tel: 0303 123 1113

Email: casework@ico.org.uk

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