Use of your Personal Information by INQUEST (Privacy Notice)

This privacy notice is compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2016. If you have any questions about its contents, please speak to a member of staff at INQUEST. You may also raise a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office by calling 0303 123 1113.

INQUEST’s Data Protection Officer is Arnaud Vervoitte. He can be contacted via email ([email protected]) or by sending a letter to INQUEST, 89-93 Fonthill Road, London N4 3JH.

The contents of the privacy notice are as follows

  1. Purpose of processing and lawful basis for processing
  2. Categories of personal data being collected
  3. Third party recipients and sources
  4. Retention
  5. Data subjects’ rights
  6. Security and Data Storage
  7. Right to withdraw consent or not provide data

  1. Purpose of processing and lawful basis for processing

All data processed by INQUEST will be for two purposes. The first and primary purpose is to undertake our work with service users, as part of the services INQUEST delivers. The second purpose is to monitor our work so that we might evaluate it for the purpose of service planning or for our funders, and to request further funding.

The lawful basis for processing a majority of data that we collect will be ‘consent’ or ‘legitimate interest’ (in order for us to deliver our charitable mission and objectives).

If the lawful basis that INQUEST uses is not consent or legitimate interest (the law sometimes requires us to collect information, for example if a person is at risk or because of statutory obligations), INQUEST will clearly identify and document that lawful basis when the relevant data is collected from the individual or third parties.

  1. Categories of personal data being collected

INQUEST may collect the following personal data:

  • Current and previous name
  • Age
  • Address and living arrangements
  • Your contact details (including phone number and email address)
  • Personal details of your deceased relative
  • Personal details of your family members
  • Number of children, their age and their gender
  • Details about your health
  • Who referred you to INQUEST
  • Any engagement with other agencies or third parties that is relevant to your involvement with INQUEST
  • Your employment status
  • Your immigration status
  • Sexuality
  • Gender identity
  • Ethnicity

The categories in bold are special category data. This means that, in addition to a lawful basis for collection, an additional condition for processing is required. In the case that it is necessary to process this data for INQUEST work, it is likely that the additional condition will be that processing is carried out in the course of INQUEST’s legitimate activities with appropriate safeguards. 

  1. Third party recipients and sources

INQUEST may receive your personal data from, or share your personal data with, other parties, such as INQUEST lawyers or experts involved in a case. INQUEST will always ask you for specific consent before sharing with, or requesting details from, key other parties, such as lawyers and experts. However, be aware that your data will be shared with contractors who work with INQUEST, such as our IT providers and database and evaluation consultants, who are GDPR compliant and adhere to data protection and confidentiality processes as part of working with us.  

  1. Retention period

Your data will be retained as long as long as it is necessary for us to undertake our work.

You may request that your data is amended, erased, or access to your data restricted. Please see section 5 for further information.

  1. Data subjects’ rights

As a ‘data subject’ (i.e. a person about whom INQUEST holds data), you have a number of rights:

  1. You have a right to freely access this privacy statement at any time
  2. You may complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office about how INQUEST handles your data.
  3. You may request to see any, or all, of the data that INQUEST holds about you.
  4. You may request to have the data we hold on you amended.
  5. You may request to have any, or all, of your data erased from INQUEST’s data systems.
  6. You may request to restrict INQUEST’s use of your data.

If you require further information regarding these rights, please speak to the Information Commissioner’s Office by calling 0303 123 1113 or visiting www.ico.org.uk.

  1. Security and data storage

INQUEST will undertake appropriate technical and organisational measures to process personal data securely.

Any personal data will be:

  • Kept in securely, if in physical copy;
  • Protected by the use of passwords and IT safety systems, if kept on a computer;
  • Destroyed in an appropriate manner, if it is no longer needed and;
  • Stored in as few places a possible (staff and volunteers are discouraged from establishing unnecessary new data sets)
  1. Right to withdraw consent or not provide data

If you have given INQUEST consent to use your data, you may withdraw that consent at any time. Please speak to a member of staff at INQUEST to understand what withdrawal of consent may mean for you as, while we will not discriminate against a service user for withdrawing consent, there may be some circumstances in which it is impossible for us to work with you without it.