At Portland Consulting Engineers, we collect and process information about individuals (i.e. ‘personal data’) for business purposes, including employment and HR administration, provision of our services, marketing, and business administration. This includes personal data relating to our staff, customers, suppliers and other third parties.
Compliance with data protection law is essential to ensure that personal data remains safe, our business operations are secure and the rights of individuals are respected. Portland Consulting Engineers is a controller under data protection law, meaning it decides how and why it uses personal data. This Policy explains our procedures for complying with data protection law in relation to personal data. It also sets out your obligations whenever you are processing any personal data in the course of your employment.
Who does this Policy apply to?
This Policy applies to all Portland Consulting Engineers employees, workers, agency workers, consultants, interns and directors
Who is responsible for data protection at Portland Consulting Engineers?
The Board is ultimately responsible for Portland Consulting Engineer’s compliance with applicable data protection law. Portland Consulting Engineers has appointed a Data Protection Lead – Lee Barr who is responsible for overseeing advising Portland Consulting Engineers on and administering compliance with this Policy and data protection law.
All Employees at Portland Consulting Engineers have some responsibility for ensuring that personal data is kept secure and processed in a lawful manner although certain Employees will have particular responsibilities, of which they will be aware and in respect of which they may receive specific instructions.
What is personal data?
Personal data means any information relating to any living individual (also known as a ‘data subject’) who can be identified (directly or indirectly) in particular by reference to an identifier (e.g. name, NI number, employee number, email address, physical features). Relevant individuals can include your colleagues, consumers, members of the public, business contacts, etc. Personal data can be factual (e.g. contact details or date of birth), an opinion about a person’s actions or behaviour, or information that may otherwise impact on that individual. It can be personal or business related.
Personal data may be automated (e.g. electronic records such as computer files or in emails) or in manual records which are part of a filing system or are intended to form part of a filing system (e.g. structured paper files and archives).
What does ‘processing’ personal data mean?
‘Processing’ personal data means any activity that involves the use of personal data (e.g. obtaining, recording or holding the data, amending, retrieving, using, disclosing, sharing, erasing or destroying). It also includes sending or transferring personal data to third parties.
Data Protection Obligations
Portland Consulting Engineers is responsible for and must be able to demonstrate compliance with data protection law. To ensure that Portland Consulting Engineers meets its responsibilities, it is essential that its Employees comply with data protection law and any other Portland Consulting Engineers policies, guidelines or instructions relating to personal data when processing personal data in the course of their employment.
We have set out below the key obligations under data protection law and details of how Portland Consulting Engineers expects Employees to comply with these requirements.
Process personal data in a fair, lawful and transparent manner
Legal grounds for processing
Data protection law allows us to process personal data only where there are fair and legal grounds which justify using the information.
Examples of legal grounds for processing personal data include the following (at least one of these must be satisfied for each processing activity):
• complying with a legal obligation (e.g. health and safety or tax laws);
• entering into or performing a contract with the individual (e.g. an Employee’s terms and conditions of employment, or a contract for services with an individual customer);
• acting in Portland Consulting Engineer’s or a third party’s legitimate interests (e.g. maintaining records of business activities, monitoring business productivity); and
• obtaining the consent of the individual (e.g. for sending direct marketing communications).
Where consent is relied upon, it must be freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous, and Portland Consulting Engineers must effectively demonstrate that consent has been given.
In line with ICO guidance regarding the employer/Employee relationship, Portland Consulting Engineers does not use consent as a legal ground for processing Employee data unless the data processing activities concerned are genuinely optional.
In most cases, consent is also not required for other standard business activities involving use of customer or supplier data, but it may be needed for activities which are not required to manage the main business relationship, such as direct marketing activities.
Transparency
Data protection law also requires us to process personal data in a transparent manner by providing individuals with appropriate, clear and concise information about how we process their personal data.
We usually provide individuals with basic information about how we use their data on forms which collect data (such as application forms or website forms), and in longer privacy notices setting out details including: the types of personal data that we hold about them, how we use it, our legal grounds for processing the information, who we might share it with and how long we keep it for. For example, we provide information about our processing of Employees’ personal data in the Portland Consulting Engineers Employee Privacy Notice.
We supplement these notices, where appropriate, with reminders or additional information at the time particular processing activities take place or become relevant for an individual (for example when they sign up for a new service or event).
What you need to do:
By processing personal data only in accordance with your lawful job duties and Portland Consulting Engineers instructions, ordinarily, you will be processing personal data fairly and lawfully.
The standard privacy notices and statements that we issue, for example, to Employees, customers and the public, should normally be sufficient to ensure that individuals have appropriate information about how you are handling their personal data in the course of your employment. However, you should consider whether reminders or additional information may be appropriate at the time particular processing activities take place. This is particularly important if you think that individuals may need further assistance to understand clearly how their data will be used as part of such activities.
Any new forms which collect personal data and any proposed consent wording must be approved in advance by the Data Protection Lead.
If you have any concerns about the legal grounds for processing personal data or if you are unsure whether individuals have been provided with appropriate information (in particular in relation to any new processing activities), please check with the Data Protection Lead.
2. Take extra care when handling sensitive or special categories of personal data
Some categories of personal data are ‘special’ because they are particularly sensitive. These include information that reveals details of an individual’s:
• racial or ethnic origin;
• political opinions;
• religious or philosophical beliefs;
• trade union membership;
• physical or mental health;
• sexual life or sexual orientation;
• biometric or genetic data (if used to identify that individual); and
• criminal offences or convictions.
Where special category personal data is concerned, data protection law requires us to have (as well as one of the legal grounds described in section 1), an additional legal ground to justify using this sensitive information. The appropriate legal ground will depend on the circumstances.
Additional legal grounds for processing special category data include the following. Those marked with an asterisk (*) would be particularly relevant to processing Employees’ special category personal data:
• complying with a legal obligation/exercising a legal right in the field of employment*;
• assessing working capacity (based on expert medical opinion, and subject to obligations of confidentiality)*;
• carrying out equalities monitoring in relation to racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, health or sexual orientation*;
• exercising, establishing or defending legal claims*;
• preventing or detecting unlawful acts; or
• explicit consent of the individual. (As well as the requirements for consent outlined in section 1 above, this requires an express statement from the individual that their special category of data may be used for the intended purposes.)
3. Only process personal data for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes
Portland Consulting Engineers will only process personal data in accordance with our legitimate purposes to carry out our business operations and to administer employment and other business relationships.
What you need to do:
You must only use the personal data that you process in the course of your duties for Portland Consulting Engineer’s legitimate and authorised purposes. You must not process personal data for any purposes which are unrelated to your job duties.
Processing personal data for any incompatible or unauthorised purposes could result in a breach of data protection law (e.g. using the company contacts database to find out a colleague’s home address for private, non-work related purposes). This may have potentially damaging consequences for all parties concerned, including disciplinary action.
If you find that you need to process personal data for a different purpose from that for which it was originally collected, you must check whether the individuals have been informed and, if not, consider whether the additional purpose is legitimate (in the context of Portland Consulting Engineer’s business activities) and compatible with the original purpose.
If you are unsure about whether the purposes for processing are legitimate, you should contact the Data Protection Lead before going ahead with processing the data for the additional purpose.
4. Make sure that personal data is adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for your legitimate purposes
Data protection law requires us to ensure that, when we process personal data, it is adequate, relevant to our purposes and limited to what is necessary for those purposes (also known as ‘data minimisation’). In other words, we ask for the information we need for our legitimate business purposes, but we won’t ask for more information than we need in order to carry out our business operations.
5. Keep personal data accurate and (where necessary) up-to-date
Portland Consulting Engineers must take steps to ensure that personal data is accurate and (where necessary) kept up-to-date. For example, we request that Employees provide us with any change in contact details or personal information via [insert details of relevant forms or HR portals]. We also take care that decisions impacting individuals are based on accurate and up-to-date information.
6. Keep personal data for no longer than is necessary for the identified purposes
Records containing personal data should only be kept for as long as they are needed for the identified purposes. Portland Consulting Engineers has in place data retention, storage and deletion policies and internal processes/guidelines regarding various types of company records and information that contain personal data.
We take appropriate steps to retain personal data only for so long as is necessary, taking into account the following criteria:
• the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data;
• the risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure;
• the purposes for which we process the personal data and how long we need the particular data to achieve these purposes;
• how long the personal data is likely to remain accurate and up-to-date;
• for how long the personal data might be relevant to possible future legal claims; and
• any applicable legal, accounting, reporting or regulatory requirements that specify how long certain records must be kept.
7. Take appropriate steps to keep personal data secure
Keeping personal data safe and complying with Portland Consulting Engineer’s security procedures to protect the confidentiality, integrity, availability and resilience of personal data is a key responsibility for Portland Consulting Engineers and its workforce.
Portland Consulting Engineers has an Information Security Policy, which sets out its organisational and technical security measures to protect information including personal data.
Portland Consulting Engineers also has a Electronic Communications Policy setting out protocols for Employees on use of technology and communications systems, which also help to ensure appropriate security of personal data stored or communicated using such systems.]
We regularly evaluate and test the effectiveness of these measures to ensure the security of our personal data processing activities [as set out in our [Information Security Policy]/as carried out by our information security team].
8. Take extra care when sharing or disclosing personal data
The sharing or disclosure of personal data is a type of processing, and therefore all the principles described in this Policy need to be applied.
Internal data sharing
Portland Consulting Engineers ensures that personal data is only shared internally on a ‘need to know’ basis.
External data sharing
We will only share personal data with other third parties (including group entities) where we have a legitimate purpose, and an appropriate legal ground under data protection law which permits us to do so. Commonly, this could include situations where we are legally obliged to provide the information (e.g. to HMRC for tax purposes) or where necessary to perform our contractual duties to individuals (e.g. provision of information to our occupational pension providers).
We may appoint third party service providers (known as processors) who will handle information on our behalf, for example to provide payroll, data storage or other technology services.
Portland Consulting Engineers remains responsible for ensuring that its processors comply with data protection law and this Policy in their handling of personal data. We must assess and apply data protection and information security measures prior to and during the appointment of a processor. The extent of these measures will vary depending on the nature of the activities, but will include appropriate risk assessments and reviews, and contractual obligations.
Details of the recipients or categories of recipients of personal data (including processors and other third parties) should be set out in privacy notices as described in section 1 above.
9. Do not transfer personal data to another country unless there are appropriate safeguards in place
An overseas transfer of personal data takes place when the data is transmitted or sent to, viewed, accessed or otherwise processed in, a different country. European Union data protection law restricts, in particular, personal data transfers to countries outside of the European Economic Area (EEA – this is the European Union plus Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland), to ensure that the level of data protection afforded to individuals is not compromised (as the laws of such countries may not provide the same level of protection for personal data as within the EEA).
To ensure that data protection is not compromised when personal data is transferred to another country, Portland Consulting Engineers assesses the risks of any transfer of personal data outside of the UK (taking into account the principles in this Policy, as well as the restrictions on transfers outside the EEA) and puts in place additional appropriate safeguards where required.
We do not currently transfer personal data outside the UK.
10. Report any data protection breaches without delay
Portland Consulting Engineers takes any data protection breaches very seriously. These can include lost or mislaid equipment or data, use of inaccurate or excessive data, failure to address an individual’s rights, accidental sending of data to the wrong person, unauthorised access to, use of or disclosure of data, deliberate attacks on Portland Consulting Engineer’s systems or theft of records, and any equivalent breaches by Portland Consulting Engineer’s service providers.
Where there has been a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of or access to individuals’ personal data, Portland Consulting Engineers will take immediate steps to identify, assess and address it, including containing the risks, remedying the breach, and notifying appropriate parties (see below).
If Portland Consulting Engineers discovers that there has been a personal data security breach that poses a risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals, we will report it to the ICO within 72 hours of discovery.
We also keep an internal record of all personal data breaches regardless of their effect and whether or not we report them to the ICO.
If a personal data breach is likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals, we will tell affected individuals that there has been a breach and provide them with information about its likely consequences and the mitigation measures we have taken.
Data protection law prohibits decision-making based solely on profiling or other automated processing, except in very limited circumstances. In addition, where profiling or other automated decision-making is permitted, safeguards must be put in place and we must give individuals the opportunity to express their point of view and challenge the decision: We do not generally conduct profiling or other automated decision-making in respect of Employees’/customers’ personal data.
12. Integrate data protection into operations
Data protection law requires Portland Consulting Engineers to build data protection considerations and security measures into all of our operations that involve the processing of personal data, particularly at the start of a new project or activity which may impact on the privacy of individuals. This involves taking into account various factors including:
• the risks (and their likelihood and severity) posed by the processing for the rights and freedoms of individuals;
• technological capabilities;
• the cost of implementation; and
• the nature, scope, context and purposes of the processing of personal data.
We also seek to assess data protection risks regularly throughout the lifecycle of any project or activity which involves the use of personal data.
Under data protection law, individuals have certain rights when it comes to how we handle their personal data. For example, an individual has the following rights:
• The right to make a ‘subject access request’. This entitles an individual to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about them, together with information about how and why we process it and other rights which they have (as outlined below). This enables them, for example, to check we are lawfully processing their data and to correct any inaccuracies.
• The right to request that we correct incomplete or inaccurate personal data that we hold about them.
• The right to withdraw any consent which they have given.
• The right to request that we delete or remove personal data that we hold about them where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. Individuals also have the right to ask us to delete or remove their personal data where they have exercised their right to object to processing (see below).
• The right to object to our processing of their personal data for direct marketing purposes, or where we are relying on our legitimate interest (or those of a third party), where we cannot show a compelling reason to continue the processing.
• The right to request that we restrict our processing of their personal data. This enables individuals to ask us to suspend the processing of personal data about them, for example if they want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
• The right to request that we transfer to them or another party, in a structured format, their personal data which they have provided to us (also known as the right to ‘data portability’). The applicability of this right depends on the legal grounds on which we process it.
• The right to challenge a decision based solely on profiling/automated processing, to obtain human intervention, and to express their point of view.
We are required to comply with these rights without undue delay and, in respect of certain rights, within a one month timeframe.
Individuals also have rights to complain to the ICO about, and to take action in court to enforce their rights and seek compensation for damage suffered from, any breaches.
Record Keeping
In order to comply, and demonstrate our compliance, with data protection law, Portland Consulting Engineers keeps various records of our data processing activities. These include a Record of Processing which must contain, as a minimum: the purposes of processing; categories of data subjects and personal data; categories of recipients of disclosures of data; information about international data transfers; envisaged retention periods; general descriptions of security measures applied; and certain additional details for special category data.
Departures from this Policy
There are some very limited exemptions from data protection law, which may permit departure from aspects of this Policy in certain circumstances.
You will be given specific instructions if any exemptions are relevant to your role.
If you think you should be able to depart from this Policy in any circumstances, you must contact the Data Protection Lead before taking any action.