Personal information charter

Advisory Committee on Clinical Excellence Awards (ACCEA) privacy notice.

The Advisory Committee on Clinical Excellence Awards (ACCEA) collects data for the specific purpose of running the national Clinical Excellence Awards scheme and has its own privacy notice.

More information about how the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the data controller for ACCEA, handles your information is available.

Reasons and purposes for processing information

We need to handle personal information about you so that we can provide better services.

High standards in handling personal information are very important to us because they help us to maintain the confidence of everyone who deals with us.

When we handle your information, we undertake to:

  • make sure you know why we need it
  • only ask for what we need: we won’t collect too much or irrelevant information
  • protect your information and ensure no one has access to it who shouldn’t
  • let you know if we are going to share it with other organisations
  • make sure we don’t keep your information for longer than necessary
  • enable you to have inaccuracies corrected

We will also:

  • value the personal information entrusted to us and make sure that we abide by the law when we handle it
  • ensure we consider security at the outset of any new project where we are planning to hold or use personal information in new ways, and continue to review existing systems to ensure they comply with new laws
  • train our staff in how to handle personal information, maintain proper oversight of our information assets and respond appropriately if information is not used or protected properly
  • let you know beforehand if we want to use your data for a different purpose

Lawful basis for processing your personal data

Paragraph 7, chapter 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018 provides that, as a government department, DHSC (which hosts and sponsors ACCEA) may process personal data as necessary for the effective performance of a task carried out in the public interest or the processing of personal data that is necessary for the administration of justice and the exercise of a function of the crown, a minister of the crown or a government department.

Should this provision not apply, we will always identify the lawful basis on which your personal information is processed as defined by Article 6 of the General Data Protection Regulation.

Data sharing

ACCEA is embedded within the DHSC and, as such, information you share with ACCEA is already disclosed to relevant individuals (requiring access to the information) within DHSC.

As ACCEA is also competent for Wales, the Welsh Government also has access to the data we hold.

We will not share your data with any third party except as set out below:

  • if we suspect malpractice or fraudulent activity, we have a duty to disclose associated information to the relevant authorities
  • when you submit your application form to your employer, it is shared with the organisation you designate
  • when you complete your employer assessment of an application, the applicant will have access to it
  • when you submit your application form to ACCEA, it is shared with members of the relevant scoring sub-committee and, in rare instances, may be shared with our main committee
  • we share award details and payment values with NHS organisations, the Welsh Government and arm’s length bodies in order to ensure consultants receive the correct awards payments
  • if there is a technical problem with your account or application, it may be necessary for our authorised contractors to access (but not store) your information

Data publication

ACCEA routinely publishes the following information:

  • the name and title, GMC/GDC registration number, NHS (or arm’s length body) contracting organisation, award level, award date and specialty of all consultants who hold a national clinical excellence award
  • the name and position or professional specialty of our scorers
  • the personal statement of all the applicants who are granted new awards (unless we agree grounds for opt-out)
  • aggregated, non-identifiable statistical information on applicants and award holders (including for diversity monitoring purposes)
  • aggregated, non-identifiable statistical information on scoring sub-committee members (including for diversity monitoring purposes)

The data we collect and what we use it for

Contact details

We use the details you provide to correspond with you.

Diversity data

To enable us to ensure the fairness of our application and scoring process and fulfill our obligations under the Equality Act 2010, we monitor the diversity of applicants, award holders and members of our scoring sub-committees.

Application forms

Submitted applications (which include the employer’s contribution) are scored to determine whether an applicant will receive an award.

Scores

The scores entered for each application are used to determine whether an applicant will receive an award.

Correspondence history

We keep copies of all key correspondence in order to answer customer inquiries and follow-up correspondence.

Employment and award information

We keep a record of award holders’ employment details and award status in order to calculate each consultant’s due payment, notify his or her employer of the amount due and enable the reimbursement of those costs.

Disciplinary and enforcement action

If an applicant or award holder becomes subject to disciplinary action or is under investigation for professional misconduct, ACCEA will follow the progress of the action. If found culpable, ACCEA may use the information provided to decide whether to withdraw an application or suspend or cancel an award.

Data retention

Outside of specific exemptions under legislation, your personal data shall be retained for no longer than the purposes for which it is being processed.

Our records are based in, and drawn from, user accounts on our online system:

  • if you are a consultant and create an account, but do not apply, we will keep your account active for 5 years after your last login
  • accounts for unsuccessful applicants will be maintained for 10 years after the latest application
  • accounts of current and previous award holders (including application forms), nominating bodies, employers and scoring sub-committee members will be maintained indefinitely for the public record

Notwithstanding the above, all users have the rights listed in the below section.

Your rights

The data we are collecting is your personal information and you have considerable say over what happens to it.

As such, you have the right:

  • to see what data we hold about you (this is known as a ‘right of access request’)
  • to ask us to stop using your data, but keep it on record
  • to have some or all of your data deleted, although you should please note that we need to retain certain data in order to maintain a public record
  • to have some of your data corrected
  • to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you think we are not handling your data fairly or in accordance with the law

Right of access requests and contacting the Data Protection Officer

DHSC is the data controller for ACCEA.

Data protection legislation allows you to find out the personal information we hold about you on computer and IT records.

To make a right of access request, please write to the Data Protection Officer. We do not charge a fee for this service and will respond within one calendar month. In the event we are unable to meet this timescale (for example, if there is a large volume of information to assess), we will keep you informed of progress.

Contact the Data Protection Officer:

Data Protection Officer

Department of Health and Social Care
1st Floor North
39 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0EU

Contact the Information Commissioner’s Office

For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing issues you can contact the independent Information Commissioner’s Office:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

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