British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly Privacy Notice
This privacy notice provides general information about how we collect and use personal data of members of the public.
In this privacy notice, references to ‘we’, ‘our’ or ‘us’ are to the Executive Board of the UK Parliament delegation to the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly (hereafter referred to as ‘BIPA’) and the staff employed by or working under the direction of the Executive Board. Everything that we do with your personal data – for example, collecting, storing, using, sharing or deleting it – is referred to as ‘processing’.
This notice only applies to personal data which is processed by the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Please note that members of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly (Members of Parliament, members of the House of Lords, members of the Oireachtas, members of the devolved legislatures and members of the island state legislatures) are separate controllers for the purposes of the data protection legislation which applies in those jurisdictions.
For personal data processed by a member of the Assembly, (MPs, Lords, Senators, TDs etc), please contact the relevant Member or legislature directly.
About us
The Corporate Officer of BIPA (a role performed by the British Administrator of BIPA) is the controller of any personal data processed as described in this privacy notice.
The personal data we process
Where necessary, we may process the following personal data of members of the public:
- Your name, address and contact details
- Images and video of you, including photographs taken at events you attend
- Audio and visual recordings of meetings or events, where you appear (the recording of which you will be informed about prior)
- Personal requirements or preferences such as dietary, access or religious needs
- Your experiences of and opinions about the goods or services we provide, such as when you make a complaint or comment, or respond to a survey
- If you submit information to a committee (such as written evidence), any personal data you include as part of that information.
- Other personal data that you may share when you contact us by letter, email, phone or other means.
How we collect your personal data
Your personal data is provided to us:
- when you correspond with the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly or take part in its work, for example when submitting evidence to a committee, making an enquiry or submitting a form
- when you meet with our representatives, such as our staff
- when you request a publication from us
- when you provide feedback or complete a survey
- by third parties who may contact us about you
- from sources in the public domain.
Purposes of the processing
The processing of your personal data is necessary for the following purposes:
- to support the functioning of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly
- to allow access the plenaries and events to participate in proceedings and events
- to allow members of the public to make enquiries or submit information, and for us to respond
- to engage with the public
- to receive complaints, comments or compliments and to resolve complaints and improve services
- to monitor trends in the people who engage with British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, specifically with regard to their diversity information, which in turn helps us identify ways of achieving our strategic aim of engaging with a diverse range of people
- to enable BIPA to fulfil its legal obligations
If you do not provide your personal data, the extent to which each of these purposes can be fulfilled may be affected. While there is no obligation to provide your personal data, this may in turn affect the range of services you can access.
The lawful basis of the processing
In order to process your personal data, we must have a ‘lawful basis’. The lawful bases are set out in the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018).
The lawful bases for processing your personal data will depend on the purpose we have collected it. In each case, one or more of the following lawful bases for processing will apply:
- UK GDPR Article 6(1)(a) – we have your consent
- UK GDPR Article 6(1)(b) – the processing is necessary in relation to a contract we have with you (or are entering into)
- UK GDPR Article 6(1)(c) – the processing is necessary for us to comply with the law
- UK GDPR Article 6(1)(e) – the processing is necessary for the performance of a public task, which includes the exercise of a function of either House of Parliament (DPA 2018 Section 8), or where the processing is in the public interest
- UK GDPR Article 6(1)(f) – the processing is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests or those of a third party, when balanced against your interests and rights. For example, if you submit feedback or make a complaint to BIPA, our legitimate interest is in responding to your complaint and/or improving the services we provide.
Other lawful bases and conditions for processing may apply if the processing of personal data is necessary in emergency circumstances, for example, to protect an individual’s vital interests or for the provision of health or medical services.
Who we share your personal data with
Where necessary, we may share your personal data with or disclose it to:
- If you have submitted evidence to a committee or appear as a witness, your evidence may be published or broadcast in the public domain
- If you are registered to attend or have attended an event, the organisers of that event
- Other organisations where there is a legal obligation to do so. For example, the Police, for the purposes of prevention and detection of crime.
We will never share or sell your personal data to other organisations for direct marketing purposes.
Events hosted by the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly
If you attend an event hosted by the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, please be aware that personal data of yours (such as images, video and sound recordings) may be collected. These may be reproduced in print and online via our social media channels, our website, and education or engagement materials we commission about Parliament. If you would like to be excluded from these recordings, please contact the organisers prior to the event.
Please note that if you share images, video or sound recordings from events we host, either publicly or with us directly, these may be reproduced via our social media channels, our website, or education or engagement materials we commission about BIPA.
Storage of your personal data
We will retain your personal data for as long as is necessary for the purpose it was collected. For the purposes of a committee inquiry, this will be for as long as the inquiry lasts up to the publication of Government responses.
Your rights
Data protection laws provide you with rights over your personal data. Subject to limited exceptions, these are:
- Where we are relying on your consent to process your personal data, you can withdraw that consent or unsubscribe from our services
- The right to access your personal data
- The right to rectification of your personal data
- The right to erasure of your personal data
- The right to restrict the processing of your personal data if you have an objection to us doing so
- The right to object to the processing of your personal data
- The right to portability of your personal data
- Rights in relation to automated decision-making and profiling.
You can contact us if you wish to exercise any of these rights. Contact details can be found at the end of this notice.
Please note that formal individual rights requests are managed by the Corporate Officer. They will retain your request, including any relevant personal data, to demonstrate that we have met our legal obligations under the UK GDPR. These records are kept securely for two years.
Contact details
If you have any concerns relating to the use of your personal data, please contact the relevant service area in the first instance.
If you have any further questions about the use of your personal data, please contact the Data Protection Officer:
- Email: healya@parliament.uk
- Post: British Secretariat to the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, House of Commons, SW1A 0AA
- Phone: 020 7219 4296
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the supervisory authority, by contacting them: www.ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/.