Privacy Notice - Committees of the Northern Ireland Assembly

The Northern Ireland Assembly and its committees recognise the importance of protecting and respecting individual privacy and data rights. This Privacy Notice sets out how Northern Ireland Assembly Committees (committees) process and protect personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to committees.

In providing correspondence or submissions, or in attending committee meetings, you agree to the committee processing your personal data in accordance with this notice.

 

1. What is personal data?

Your personal data is information that relates to you and which can be used to identify you on its own, or used to identify you in combination with other publicly-available information.

In the context of committees, personal data includes:

i) Data you are asked to disclose in order to facilitate committee administration (for example when you are to attend as a witness), such as your name, contact information, date of birth and gender.

ii) Data that you may disclose as part of a committee survey, such as sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, benefits entitlement, criminal records.

iii) Data that you disclose in written or oral evidence provided to a committee, or correspondence sent to a committee, which relate to your own experience.

 

2. Why are you processing my personal information?

Committees process a limited amount of personal data to help them undertake their statutory functions, which include scrutinising the work of Ministers, advising and assisting Ministers in the formulation of policy, legislating and undertaking inquiries.

Committee Meetings

The majority of committee meetings are public meetings and are broadcast live on the Assembly's website, and available to watch again on the Assembly's webpages. Although cameras are positioned to pick up those sitting at the table, there are times when people in the public gallery can be seen.

If you are invited to attend a committee meeting to give your views on a matter the committee is considering, your views will be referred to as 'evidence'. The part of the committee meeting where you give your views is known as an 'evidence session'.

For some evidence sessions, a substantially verbatim transcript of the proceedings will be produced. This is known as the Official Report, or Hansard. If a transcript is taken during your evidence session, you will be provided with a copy of this shortly after the session. The Official Report is published on the Assembly's website, and retained for historical purposes.

Written Submissions

Committees may also seek written evidence; for example, to inform the development of legislation, or as part of a committee inquiry. The primary mechanism for receipt of written evidence is the Citizen Space platform, although other formats are also used.

Data submitted via Citizen Space, is deleted from this platform once it has been processed by the committee. The organisation that manages Citizen Space (Delib) will not access your personal information unless requested to do so by the Assembly, and only for the purposes of assisting with the administration of the site.

Correspondence

On occasion, you may send correspondence containing personal data to a committee. This correspondence may be solicited (for example, when a committee calls for evidence on a particular matter) or unsolicited (for example, when you want to bring something to the attention of a committee).

Committee Events/Visits

Committees may organise events or visits related to their area of work.

If you attend a committee event or visit, photographs or videos may be taken and may be used in broadcasts and social media. This will be made clear in event signage. However, if you do not wish to appear in any images or video please advise the committee team on your arrival.

 

3. What is the lawful basis for processing my personal information?

The data protection legislation requires that any organisation which processes personal data must have a valid reason for doing so, known as the 'lawful basis' for processing.

Committees process personal data where that is necessary for them to perform tasks in the public interest. These tasks include committees' statutory scrutiny functions and their role in the promotion of democratic engagement.

 

4. Where do you get my personal data from?

Personal data is collected from correspondence or submissions you make to the committee, including any written and oral evidence provided, or follow-up correspondence completed by you.

 

5. How is my personal data processed?

Personal data collected by committees will be held in a secure network environment maintained by the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission solely for the purpose of committee business unless otherwise stated.

Evidence

Video recordings of public committee meetings are retained and shared on the Assembly's website and social media channels. A report of evidence given to a committee in closed session (i.e. not broadcast), may be published in an anonymised form on our website as part of the public record of proceedings.

Written submissions will be provided to the Committee in full (unredacted) to ensure adequate scrutiny in line with our statutory functions. Written submissions, redacted where necessary, will also be published on the Assembly website.

While we endeavour to ensure that personal data provided within evidence is anonymised for sensitive topic areas, we cannot guarantee anonymity across all submissions.

Correspondence

Items of correspondence are retained by the committee in line with the organisational Retention and Disposal Schedule.

Correspondence, other than evidence, is not routinely published either on the committee's website or as an appendix to any committee report.

Contact details

A committee may use contact details provided to contact you in relation to a submission. For example, the committee may contact you to invite you to attend a committee meeting to present your submission, or to provide further written information.

If you provide your contact information to the committee in the course of arranging attendance at a committee event, that information will only be used for the purposes of attending that event.

When you correspond with a committee, and the committee thinks that correspondence could more appropriately be considered by another public body (for example a department), the correspondence will not be shared without your consent.

 

6. Do you transfer my personal data to other countries?

The Northern Ireland Assembly will not transfer your personal data to other countries except where that transfer is required by law. This is unlikely to occur, and any such transfer will be made only if that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects.

 

7. How long do you keep my personal data?

We will retain your data in line with our Retention and Disposal Schedule, after which it will be destroyed. The retention period is usually for a period that will cover the remaining mandate (i.e. the period until the next election) plus an additional 5 years.

 

Where committee documents form part of the historical record and are to be retained for transfer to the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), all personal data will be marked for redaction in accordance with the PRONI guidance.

 

8. What rights do I have?

  • You have the right to know if your personal data is being processed, and the right to access that data
  • You have the right to have your personal data rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
  • You have rights in relation to automated decision-making and profiling.
  • Subject to limited statutory exceptions you have the following additional rights:
    • You have a right to have your personal data erased and to prevent processing.
    • You have the right to prevent processing of your personal data, in specific circumstances.
    • You have the right to data portability.
    • You have the right to object to the processing.

 

9. How do I complain if I am not happy?

If you have any enquiries in relation to how the committee has processed your data, please contact the relevant committee office as follows:

 

Committee for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs

committee.agrienvrural@niassembly.gov.uk

 

Assembly & Executive Review Committee

committee.assemblyexecutivereview@niassembly.gov.uk

 

Audit Committee

committee.audit@niassembly.gov.uk

 

Committee for Communities

committee.communities@niassembly.gov.uk

 

Committee for the Economy

committee.economy@niassembly.gov.uk

 

Committee for Education

committee.education@niassembly.gov.uk

 

Committee for Finance

committee.finance@niassembly.gov.uk

 

Committee for Infrastructure

committee.infrastructure@niassembly.gov.uk

 

Committee for Justice

committee.justice@niassembly.gov.uk

 

Committee on Procedures

committee.procedures@niassembly.gov.uk

 

Public Accounts Committee

committee.publicaccounts@niassembly.gov.uk

 

Committee on Standards and Privileges

committee.standardsprivileges@niassembly.gov.uk

 

Windsor Framework Democratic Scrutiny Committee

WindsorFramework.Committee@niassembly.gov.uk

 

 

If you are unhappy with how any aspect of this privacy notice, or how your personal information is being processed, please contact the Data Protection & Governance Officer at:

 

Post:

Information Standards

Room 241

Parliament Buildings,

Ballymiscaw,

Stormont,

Belfast

BT4 3XX

 

Email: dpo@niassembly.gov.uk

 

Tel: (028)90 521147

 

If you are still not happy, you may complain to Information Commissioner's Office.

 

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/