Evaluation of Acas Collective Conciliation service: privacy notice

What is the legal basis for processing my data?

For this study, the legal basis for processing your personal data is ‘Public Task’. The condition for processing special category personal data is ‘Reasons of substantial public interest’. These legal bases pertain to Acas’s statutory duty “to promote the improvement of industrial relations” and to provide conciliation for bringing about a settlement in collective trade disputes (Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992), to which end it is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of conciliation through research with users of the service.

Who will have access to my personal data?

For the purpose of data protection legalisation, Acas are the data controllers. NatCen is the data processor for the research. This means Acas is responsible for deciding the purpose and legal basis for processing personal data from this study. 

McGowan Transcriptions is the transcription service NatCen use to transcribe telephone interview data. They will have access to recordings and transcriptions from all telephone interviews. McGowan Transcriptions is on NatCen’s approved supplier list and compliant with all of their information security policy.

How will NatCen use your information?

Data will only be used for research purposes. NatCen will write up the findings in a report in a way that protects your anonymity. The report will contain statistics and direct quotes from the data you provide us, however no information that could specifically identify you will be included. 

NatCen will not attribute any views to you but report the overall views of all the people that participated in the research. NatCen will also not tell anyone else what you have personally said, nor will NatCen include any names or personal details in the report. The findings of the research will be published on the Acas website. All information for this study will be securely deleted 6 months after the research is complete. 

You can withdraw your data from this study at any time prior to analysis, on 31 January 2024. 

Who are NatCen?

NatCen is an independent social research institute. We design, conduct, and analyse research studies in the fields of social and public policy. NatCen researchers are responsible for this project and are delivering the surveys and interviews.

Your data protection rights

You have rights with regards to your personal data. These include:

• The right to request copies of your personal data.
• The right to ask us to correct any personal data that we hold about you that’s inaccurate or incomplete.
• The right to ask us to delete personal data that we hold about you.
• The right to object or restrict how we’re processing your personal data.

Who to contact if you have a query or complaint? 

To contact the research team at NatCen, please email acas.cce@natcen.ac.uk or call 0207 549 7167 free of charge. 

Alternatively, to contact the research team at Acas directly, please email research@acas.org.uk.

If you have any questions about how your data will be used for this research, you can contact NatCen’s Data Protection Officer at dpo@natcen.ac.uk. Or you can contact Acas’s Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@acas.org.uk. (Acas’s full privacy notice is available at acas.org.uk/privacy)

Under GDPR, you have the right to lodge a complaint about how information has been used or managed.