Policy paper

Special category and criminal conviction personal data (the appropriate policy document)

Published 22 May 2018

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

1. Introduction

This is the “Appropriate Policy Document” for Cabinet Office that sets out how we will protect special category and criminal convictions personal data.

2. Scope

This policy has been developed for the Cabinet Office to meet the requirement in the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 for an appropriate policy document that sets out how we will protect special category and criminal convictions personal data. The document also sets out and explains our approach for securing compliance with the principles in Article 5 of the GDPR.

Special category data (defined by Article 9 of the GDPR) is personal data which reveals:

• racial or ethnic origin
• political opinions
• religious or philosophical beliefs
• trade union membership
• genetic data
• biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person
• data concerning health
• data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation

Article 10 of the GDPR covers processing in relation to criminal convictions and offences. Section 11(2) of the DPA 2018 provides that criminal conviction data includes data which relates to the alleged commission of offences and related proceedings and sentencing.

3. Purpose

The APD meets the requirement at paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018 that an appropriate policy document be in place where the processing of special category personal data is necessary for the purposes of performing or exercising obligations or rights which are imposed or conferred by law on the controller or the data subject in connection with employment, social security or social protection.

It also meets the requirement at paragraph 5 of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018 that an appropriate policy document be in place where the processing of special category personal data is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest. The specific conditions under which data may be processed for reasons of substantial public interest are set out at paragraphs 1 to 37 of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018.

The policy applies to all Cabinet Office personnel involved in the processing of special category and criminal convictions data.

4. Conditions for processing special category and criminal offence data

Cabinet Office predominantly processes special category data in the performance of its statutory and corporate functions when the following conditions set out in the following paragraphs of Part 1 and 2 of Schedule 1 to the DPA 2018 are met:

• Paragraph 1 (Employment, social security and social protection)
• Paragraph 4 (Research etc)
• Paragraph 6 (Statutory etc and government purposes)
• Paragraph 7 (Administration of justice and parliamentary purpose)
• Paragraph 8 (Equality of opportunity or treatment)
• Paragraph 10 (Preventing or detecting unlawful acts)
• Paragraph 14 (Preventing fraud)
• Paragraph 21 (Occupational pensions)
• Paragraph 24 (Disclosure to elected representatives).
• Paragraph 32 (Personal data in the public domain)
• Paragraph 33 (Legal claims)

Criminal offence data is processed under Article 10 of the GDPR.

5. Cabinet Office compliance with data protection principles

In accordance with the accountability principle, the Cabinet Office maintains records of processing activities under Article 30 of GDPR and section 61 of the DPA 2018. We carry out data protection impact assessments where appropriate in accordance with Articles 35 and 36 of the GDPR and section 64 of the DPA 2018 for law enforcement processing to ensure data protection by design and default.

Cabinet Office follows the data protection principles set out in Article 5 of the GDPR, and Part 3, Chapter 2 of the DPA 2018 for law enforcement processing, as follows:

5.1 Principle 1

Personal data shall be processed lawfully, fairly and transparently in relation to the data subject.

The Cabinet Office will:

• ensure that personal data is only processed where a lawful basis applies, and where processing is otherwise lawful
• only process personal data fairly, and will ensure that data subjects are not misled about the purposes of any processing
• where appropriate, ensure that data subjects receive full privacy information so that any processing of personal data is transparent

5.2 Principle 2

Personal data shall be collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes.

The Cabinet Office will:

• only collect personal data for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes, and we will inform data subjects what those purposes are in a privacy notice
• not use personal data for purposes that are incompatible with the purposes for which it was collected. If we do use personal data for a new purpose that is compatible, we will inform the data subject first

5.3 Principle 3

Personal data shall be adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed.

The Cabinet Office will only collect the minimum personal data that we need for the purpose for which it is collected. The data is periodically reviewed to ensure that the data we collect is adequate and relevant.

5.4 Principle 4

Personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.

The Cabinet Office will ensure that personal data is accurate, and kept up to date where necessary. We will take particular care to do this where our use of the personal data has a significant impact on individuals.

Sensitive personal data will be distinguished between that based on fact and personal assessments.

Where possible we distinguish between sensitive personal data relating to different categories of data subject.

5.5 Principle 5

Personal data shall be kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed.

The Cabinet Office will only keep personal data in identifiable form as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it is collected, or where we have a legal obligation to do so. Once we no longer need personal data it shall be deleted or rendered permanently anonymous.

5.6 Principle 6

Personal data shall be processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures.

The Cabinet Office will ensure that there are appropriate organisational and technical measures in place to protect personal data.

5.7 Accountability principle

The controller shall be responsible for, and be able to demonstrate compliance with these principles. Our Accounting Officer is responsible for ensuring that the department is compliant with these principles. We have put in place appropriate technical and organisational measures to meet the requirements of accountability. These include:

• ensuring that records are kept of all personal data processing activities, and that these are provided to the Information Commissioner on request
• taking a ‘data protection by design and default’ approach to our activities
• adopting and implementing data protection policies and ensuring we have written contracts in place with our data processors
• implementing appropriate security measures in relation to the personal data we process
• maintaining logs as appropriate for processing operations in automated processing systems
• carrying out a Data Protection Impact Assessment for any high risk personal data processing, and consult the Information Commissioner if appropriate
• ensuring that a Data Protection Officer is appointed to provide independent advice and monitoring of the departments’ personal data handling, and that this person has access to report to the highest management level of the department
• having in place internal processes to ensure that personal data is only collected, used or handled in a way that is compliant with data protection law

6. Data controller’s policies as regards retention and erasure of personal data

We will ensure that our retention and destruction policy, where special category or criminal convictions personal data is processed, requires:

• there is a record of that processing, and that record will set out, where possible, the envisaged time limits for erasure of the different categories of data
• where we no longer require special category or criminal convictions personal data for the purpose for which it was collected, we will delete it or render it permanently anonymous
• data subjects receive full privacy information about how their data will be handled, and that this will include the period for which the personal data will be stored, or if that is not possible, the criteria used to determine that period

7. Further information

This policy will be retained for the duration of our processing and for a minimum of 6 months after processing ceases.

This policy will be reviewed annually or revised more frequently if necessary.

For further information about the Cabinet Office’s compliance with data protection law, please contact us via our online contact form.

Alternatively, if you wish to contact our Data Protection Officer, you may do so:

dpo@cabinetoffice.gov.uk