Personal information charter

Our personal information charter contains the standards you can expect when we ask for, or hold, your personal information.

Data Protection Policy

For the purposes of data protection law, the AAIB is part of the Department for Transport. The Department has a Personal Information Charter which describes how it protects personal data.

The AAIB’s approach to the privacy of personal data conforms to the Department’s Charter with some additional provisions. The additions arise from the AAIB’s role as an independent accident investigator, governed by its own laws. The key additions to the Department’s Charter are described in the following sections.

The data we collect

The AAIB collects personal information to meet its obligations for the investigation of Air Accidents and Serious Incidents. This will include personal information of those involved in an Air Accident or Incident. The AAIB also receives personal information from third parties, including those outside of the EU.

The AAIB carries out its work under Regulation (EU) 996/2010 and The Civil Aviation (Investigation of Air Accidents and Incidents) Regulations 2018, as well as complying with the International protocols laid down in ICAO Annex 13. These regulations allow the AAIB to obtain any information that is necessary to carry out a Safety Investigation.

Any persons or organisations that are required to disclose personal information to the AAIB during an investigation, including carrying out such processing as is necessary in order to make that disclosure, will do so in order to comply with the legal obligations to which they are subject, as laid down in the regulations.

The regulations also bind any person that participates in a Safety Investigation to the applicable rules of professional secrecy including the anonymity of those involved or those who have provided information in the context of a Safety Investigation.

The only way the AAIB can be required to share personal data outside of a Safety Investigation would be if ordered by a relevant court.

Our use of personal data

AAIB collects information for the purposes of Safety Investigation. Information cannot be shared outside of an investigation by UK and European law and also under International protocols. The only time personal information is shared outside of a Safety Investigation is if the AAIB is so ordered by a relevant court.

To meet its obligations the AAIB is required to furnish other States with personal information, some of these States are outside of the EU. This information is supplied under the Regulations and the recipient is bound by the rules of professional secrecy and rules in the International protocols.

Retention of personal data

The AAIB holds all personal data securely. The AAIB will retain personal data that is necessary for Safety Investigation purposes and this will extend beyond the publication of the investigation report. This is because the information is pertinent to subsequent Safety Investigations or there is a possibility the investigation could be reopened at a later date. The continuing need for retention of personal data is reviewed periodically and it is destroyed once there is no further need for it to be retained.

Your rights

You have the right to ask us for details of the personal data we hold on you, and we will respond to your request within 30 days of receiving it. We will consider requests to correct or erase your personal data, but our response will be governed by our policy on data retention and our legal obligations. The AAIB will not notify persons about information that has been received about them from a third party, this is because of legal requirements laid down in our regulations.

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