Privacy (Information) Notice from the Procurement Office of the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission (NIAC)
In the Privacy Notice we have set out how we will collect and use any of your personal data which we collect as part of our tendering processes.
Data Controller Name: Northern Ireland Assembly Commission
Address: Parliament Buildings, Ballymiscaw, Stormont, Belfast BT4 3XX
Telephone: (028) 9052 1137
Information Standards Officer: Donna-Marie Clark
Email: donna-marie.clark@niassembly.gov.uk
Tel: (028) 9052 1147
1. Why are you processing my personal information?
The NIAC’s Procurement Office collects personal information for the sole purpose of awarding public contracts on behalf of the NIAC. When contracts are valued in excess of £115,633 excluding VAT, such contracts are governed by the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR 2015).
The NIAC’s Procurement Office collects two different types of information as part of their legal obligations under the PCR 2015:
(a) ‘Selection information’ i.e. name, job title, contact details and on some occasions, CVs. This information is collected for tendering purposes usually as part of the selection stage of a tender. Specifically, this could be at the Pre-qualification questionnaire(PQQ) stage of the Restricted procedure, Competitive procedure with negotiation, Competitive dialogue process or the selection stage of an Open procedure; and
(b) ‘TUPE information’ i.e. anonymised information in relation to employment terms and conditions of contract e.g. salary/wages, length of service, holidays, pension etc.
Such information would only be processed if the contract being re-tendered, was considered subject to the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 and the Service Provision Change (Protection of Employment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006.
On occasions similar ‘Selection Information’ may be collected when the NIAC’s Procurement Office is undertaking smaller tender projects from £30,001 up to £115,633 excluding VAT or when business areas within the NIAC are undertaking quotation exercises i.e. for expenditure up to £30,000.
2. What is the lawful basis for processing my personal information?
The NIAC’s Procurement Office consider that the lawful basis for processing your personal information is covered under Article 6(1)(b).
We will only process your personal information to collect pre-contractual information before entering into a contract with you as an individual or as an organisation. This will be at the tender stage of a competition or when undertaking quotation exercises.
3. What categories of personal data are you processing?
The NIAC’s Procurement Office processes the following information in
(a) ‘Selection Information’ – name of the individual, job title, company/organisation name, address and contact number.
On some occasions personal data held on CVs may be processed and evaluated against the evaluation criteria; and
(b) ‘TUPE Information’ – an anonymised list of employees including job titles, terms and conditions of contract of employment, salary/wages, future payment settlements and redundancy and pension entitlements, details of any disciplinary or grievance proceedings, current or likely to arise, and details of any claims current or threatened.
4. Where do you get my personal data from?
Personal data is collected when potential tenderer or individual submits a tender or responds to a request to quote. In the case of ‘TUPE Information’ the potential tenderer is likely to be your employer.
5. State the source of the personal data originates from, and whether it came from public accessible sources.
The source of personal data is from the tender document or quotation information requested. This personal data will not be obtained from public accessible sources.
6. Do you share my personal data with anyone else?
The NIAC does not share your personal data with 3rd parties. Generally, any personal data collected during a tender procedure will only be shared with the NIAC evaluation panel, the Procurement Office and the NIAC Contract Manager.
However, the only exception to this will ‘TUPE Information’ which is shared externally with other suppliers who may be interested in responding to our tender opportunity. If they are thinking about responding to our tender or do respond to our tender opportunity; they will use this information to help them either, make the decision to respond or to complete our tender procedure e.g. complete the pricing schedule.
We will only be able to identify the names of these external organisations once they express an interest in our tender opportunity.
7. Do you transfer my personal data to other countries?
Any tender information will be held securely within our e-sourcing tool and access is restricted. Only the NIAC evaluation panel, the Procurement Office and the NIAC Contract Manager can assess this information.
If a member of the NIAC evaluation panel is located in another country this would be the only reason your personal data might be transferred and only via our secure e-sourcing tool.
8. How long do you keep my personal data?
We will only retain your data for as long as necessary to process (i.e. evaluate our tender opportunities) and then hold it in line with our Retention and Disposal Schedule. After which, your data will be destroyed. Please access the link to review our Retention and Disposal Schedule on our website Retention and Disposal Schedule
9. How do you use my personal data to make decisions about me?
If the personal information contained within the ‘Selection Information’ or ‘TUPE Information’ is submitted to the NIAC’s Procurement Office’, then this information is likely only to be used to evaluate tenders received from your employer. We do not undertake any automated decision making or profiling, but instead we will use your information in conjunction with a signification amount of other information received in the tender response to evaluate which supplier will win our contract.
As a consequences of the Procurement Office having your personal data contained within the ‘Selection Information’ or the ‘TUPE Information’, the evaluation panel may select your employer as a winning or unsuccessful tenderer. However, we would emphasise that your personal data will be a very small part of this overall decision making process.
We assume that before your employer submits your personal data contained within your CV or within the TUPE information provided, that they will have discussed it with you and potentially will have obtained your permission.
10. What rights do I have?
You have the right to obtain confirmation that your data is being processed, and access to your personal data. You are entitled to have personal data rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
You have a right to have personal data erased and to prevent processing, in specific circumstances. You have the right to ‘block’ or suppress processing of personal data, in specific circumstances. You have the right to data portability, in specific circumstances. You have the right to object to the processing, in specific circumstances. You have rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.
11. How do I complain if I am not happy?
If you are unhappy with how any aspect of this privacy notice, or how your personal information is being processed, please contact the NI Assembly Information Standards Officer by email at donna-marie.clark@niassembly.gov.uk or by telephone on (028) 9052 1147.
If you are still not happy, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113
Email: casework@ico.org.uk
https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
