Privacy

Overview

This statement describes how your personal data will be handled by the Scottish Rural Network Support Unit, including the Directorate for Agriculture and Rural Economy in the Scottish Government, and by our partners. You can see details of how to contact us below.

We take our responsibilities for the way we store, secure and use your personal information seriously, and always seek to respect your privacy and to meet our legal obligations. These obligations include the General Data Protection Regulation, the UK Data Protection Act, and other regulations and legislation relating to privacy and communications. In this Policy notice, we explain the purposes for which we use personal data and the legal basis for that use. We explain our responsibilities for collecting data and what happens if you fail to provide data we need or provide incorrect data. We set out the categories of data we collect and how we acquire it, especially in those cases where it may come from another party. We set out our approach to sharing data and give information about the organisations with whom we share data and why we do so. Finally, we advise you of your various rights and how to exercise them.

If you have any queries on this Policy, please contact us at:

ARE Information Governance and Services
C1 Spur, Saughton House
Saughton House
Broomhouse Drive
Edinburgh
EH11 3XD
Email: AREInfoGovernance@gov.scot

Why we process your data

We hold personal data for the following purposes:

If you consent to receive the weekly Scottish Rural Network newsletter, we will retain your email address, which will be processed by our partner organisation Campaign Monitor.

The data we may use about you

We will collect, process and use information as necessary relating to:

  • your use of this website or other websites we may be responsible for, including actions you perform as a registered user of our systems, and analytic data relating to your browsing captured through the use of cookies 
  • Cookies are text files which identify users' computers to the Scottish Rural Network website server. The website then creates "session" cookies to store some of the preferences of users moving around the website, e.g. retaining a text-only preference. Cookies in themselves do not identify individual users but identify only the computer used and they are deleted on departure from the website.

Where we get data from

Our information about you will normally be supplied by you or by your representative. Where we have reason to believe that information comes from you or from someone acting as your representative, we will treat information about you as having come from you. It is therefore important that you ensure that any login details that we have provided are kept confidential, and that any changes in your representation are notified to us. We may receive information about you from a third party, either because they are under a statutory obligation to provide that data or because they or we believe we have a statutory responsibility to process that information.

Freedom of information

The Scottish Government is a Scottish Public Authority and is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004. We are therefore obliged to consider the release of any information held by us in response to a request. In providing any response to a request, we will fully consider our obligations under data protection legislation.

Publication of beneficiary information

European legislation requires us to publish, on a website, information relating to beneficiaries of Common Agricultural Policy Schemes and to make this information available for two years.

Transfer out of Europe

We will transfer your information to third countries (i.e. those outside the European Economic Area (EEA)) only where there is an enforceable instrument which provides appropriate safeguards of your rights.

Any such arrangements will be separately identified when information is collected.

How long do we keep your data?

Data will be retained according to requirements in legislation, particularly:

  • EU Regulations relating to CAP Schemes and the SG's responsibilities and liabilities arising from those Regulations (for example, to satisfy auditors as to the controls on spend)
  • the SG's responsibilities under the Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011 to maintain a Records Management Plan approved by the Keeper of the Records of Scotland

The SG's records Classification scheme , which includes retention periods, can provide further information.

Your rights

You have the right:

  • to require to see a copy of the information we hold about you and associated information about how it is being collected and processed
  • to require correction of any inaccurate data
  • to require the erasure of personal data where it is no longer required or for other reasons defined in the Regulation
  • to require restriction of processing of personal data
  • to object to our processing your data and to require us to show that the public interest or our legitimate interests override your own interests, rights and freedoms
  • not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing

Where we are processing data for other purposes than the performance of a task carried out in the public interest, you have the right to receive the data about you in a structured, commonly-used machine-readable format.

If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information or to seek to exercise any of the rights listed above, please email dpa@gov.scot or write to us at the following address:

The Data Protection Officer
Office of the Chief Information Officer
K1 Spur
Saughton House
Broomhouse Drive
Edinburgh
EH11 3XD

Your rights to complain to the Information Commissioner's Officer

Without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority specified by one of the EU member states.

The UK's designated supervisory authority is The Information Commissioner.

Their details are: Helpline: 0303 123 1113 Email: casework@ico.org.uk Website: https://ico.org.uk