Accountable Officer & Responsible Organisation Privacy Policy - DBS Basic Disclosure Check
Introduction
This privacy policy explains your rights as an Accountable Officer of the DBS under the Data Protection Act 1998. It explains why we require your personal data, and what you can expect from us in terms of our data protection responsibilities.
About this policy
This policy explains your rights as an Accountable Officer. These rights are set out by the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act). The policy explains why we require your personal data. It will cover what we do with your data and what you can expect from us in return. It will also explain how to obtain a copy of any personal data we may hold about you.
The policy will not replace the Data Protection Act. It will show how the DBS will comply with the Act when processing your personal data.
The DBS has 2 functions:
- disclosure which searches police records and, in relevant cases, information held by the DBS Barring function and issues a DBS certificate to the applicant
- barring to help safeguard vulnerable groups including children from those people who work or volunteer with them who pose a risk of harm. The DBS may use any information on a certificate or otherwise held by the DBS to inform any of it’s barring decisions made under its powers within the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006.
This policy is aimed at Accountable Officer’s who are usually senior figures within Responsible Organisation’s who are registered with DBS to submit Basic disclosures checks on behalf of individuals and sets out their rights.
Your rights and how we protect them
The DBS is committed to compliance with the Act. We hold a legal duty to do so. We will take every precaution to protect your data. The following principles will apply when we process your personal data:
- only data that we actually need is collected and processed
- your data is only seen by those who need it to do their jobs
- your data is retained only for as long as it is required
- your data is accurate and is only used as part of the DBS process
- decisions affecting you are made on the basis of reliable and up to date data
- your data is protected from unauthorised or accidental disclosure
- you will be provided with a copy of data we hold on you, on request
- there will be procedures in place for dealing promptly with any disputes / complaints
- your data with regard to the DBS Disclosure Service is only processed with your knowledge and consent
All will apply whether we hold your data on paper or in electronic form.
What personal data we hold
We will only hold your data if you have:
- applied for a disclosure check;
- applied to be a countersignatory for a disclosure check;
- been referred to the barring service;
applied to be an Accountable Officer
Responsibility for your personal data
The DBS is the ‘data controller’ of all data held within the DBS. This means that we hold full responsibility for the safety of the data contained on any pre-registration forms and data captured as part of the checking of an Accountable Officer’s ID documents. The DBS is also a ‘data processor’ of the data held by the specified ‘data sources’.
Any organisation that works on behalf of the DBS is referred to as our ‘data processor’. We can assure that our ‘data processors’ comply with the Act. This is to the same high standard as the DBS.
Your information maybe used for testing purposes to ensure that the system functions as per specified requirements and only where dummy data is not practical or the use of data obfuscation or masking could result in referential integrity issues.
Organisations that are involved in the DBS service
Your data will only be seen by those whose jobs require them to do so. In practice, this means DBS staff conducting the various checks that are necessary for the decision making regarding your suitability as an Accountable Officer and Responsible Organisation.
Data may also be passed to organisations and ‘data sources’ involved with the DBS. These are:
•Tata Consultancy Services – a partner in the DBS service
•police forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel
•customer satisfaction surveys - the DBS may conduct customer satisfaction surveys and may employ a specialised organisation to conduct the survey on their behalf. The data used includes: name, address, age, gender, telephone number and email address.
Any member of staff that has access to your data will be thoroughly checked by a governmental security unit. All our staff are data protection trained and are aware of their responsibilities under the Act.
We conduct regular compliance checks on all DBS departments and systems. All checks are to the standard set out by the Information Commissioners Office. In addition continual security checks on our IT systems are undertaken.
Reasons for requesting personal data,a Basic check,ID documents and a financial credit check
The DBS must satisfy itself that you and your organisation can comply with the requirements set out in the DBS Basic Check Terms & Conditions, DBS Basic Check Processing Standards for Disclosure and Barring Service and DBS Basic Web Service Interchange Agreementand that the person to be appointed as the Accountable Officer within your organisation is suitable, the DBS will register your organisation as a Responsible Organisation.
The consequence of registration is that the DBS function within section 118 Police Act 1997, in respect of ensuring the application is supported by such evidence to verify the identity of the applicant, is delegated by the DBS to your organisation under paragraph 7 of Schedule 8 to the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.
For this reason we must be sure of yoursuitability to act as an Accountable Officer and your organisation to register as a Responsible Organisation.
Basic check suitability assessment of the Accountable Officer
A suitability decision will be made using the information contained on the basic check the Accountable Officer has obtained and presented to DBS. This will be done on a case by case basis following the DBS Accountable Officer risk assessment. Suitability will be assessed in relation to the functions carried out by the Responsible Organisation. These functions include ensuring that any application that is made under section 112 Police Act, and submitted by the RO, is supported by such evidence required by DBS under section 118 Police Act 1997 to verify the identity of the applicant. Suitability will also be assessed for the role of the (RO) in processing personal sensitive information on behalf of individual applicants to the DBS and, with the consent of the applicant, to proposed employers.
Generally, the DBS consider that it is likely that offences of dishonesty and extortion, serious sexual and violent offences and non-minor drug offences could in principle impact upon a person’s suitability, depending on the circumstances of the relevant offence and how long ago it occurred. However, each case will be considered on its own merits. In considering each case the following factors, will be taken into account:
- the nature of the offences and their relevance to the functions
- the seriousness of the offences
- the number of offences
- date of the offences
- the circumstances surrounding the offending
- the person’s attitude to the offending
- any change in circumstances since the offences occurred
- any other mitigating circumstances and/or other factors which are considered relevant to suitability
ID document checks
Once your ID documents are received, we will carry out an initial check to verify that the ID documents you have provided satisfy our ID guidelines. Your ID documents will then be checked by the DBS Fraud Detection and Investigation Team for authenticity. If a UK passport has been provided we will validate using legal gateways via Her Majesty’s Passport Office (HMPO) passport system to verify their authenticity.
If a non UK passport has been provided wemay request examination by the National Document Fraud Unit, who are document examination experts, to confirm the validity of the document. All transactions will be logged and documents securely stored in a safe whilst the verification process is undertaken. We may also request examination by the National Document Fraud Unit of driving licence’s to check authenticity.
Financial credit check
As payments for basic disclosure checks will be made in arrears we will carry out a financial credit check of your organisations to assess the credit worthiness and this will inform the approval of your organisations payment account status as part of the registration process. If you are already registered with DBS as a Registered Body we will not carry out this check as we already have a financial relationship with you.
Retention of data
The DBS will ensure that data is not held for longer than is necessary for the purpose.
Storage of data
The personal data provided in this form will be held in secure computer files, which have restricted access. We have approved measures in place to stop unlawful access and disclosure.
Individual rights
An individual has a number of rights under the Data Protection Act 1998 which include:
•to ask us to amend any data if it is incorrect
•compensation for damage caused through a data protection breach
•access to the data we hold
•the right to stop unsolicited marketing
Notification of changes
If we decide to change this privacy policy, we will inform you.