RCGP needs to collect and use certain types of
information about people with whom it deals in order to
operate.
These include current, past and prospective
employees, suppliers, clients/customers, and others with
whom it communicates. In addition, it may occasionally
be required by law to collect and use certain types of
information of this kind to comply with the requirements
of government departments for business data, for
example. This personal information must be dealt with
properly, however it is collected, recorded and used –
whether on paper, in a computer, or recorded on other
material – and there are safeguards to ensure this in
the Data Protection Act 1998.
We regard the lawful and correct treatment of
personal information as very important to successful
operations, and to maintaining confidence between those
with whom we deal and ourselves.
We ensure that our
organisation treats personal information lawfully and
correctly.
To this end we fully endorse and adhere to the
Principles of Data Protection, as enumerated in the Data
Protection Act 1998 and have developed and implemented
policies, procedures and controls to assist with data
protection compliance.
Specifically, the Principles require that personal
information:
- Shall be processed fairly and lawfully and, in
particular, shall not be processed unless specific
conditions are met;
- Shall be obtained only for one or more specified
and lawful purposes, and shall not be further
processed in any manner incompatible with that
purpose or those purposes;
- Shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive in
relation to the purpose or purposes for which they
are processed;
- Shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up
to date;
- Shall not be kept for longer than is necessary
for that purpose or those purposes;
- Shall be processed in accordance with the rights
of data subjects under the Act;
- Appropriate technical and organisational
measures shall be taken against unauthorised or
unlawful processing of personal data and against
accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to,
personal data; and
- Shall not be transferred to a country or
territory outside the European Economic Area unless
that country or territory ensures an adequate level
of protection for the rights and freedoms of data
subjects in relation to the processing of personal
data.
Therefore, RCGP will, through appropriate management,
strict application of criteria and controls:
- Observe fully conditions regarding the fair
collection and use of information;
- Meet its legal obligations to specify the
purposes for which information is used;
- Collect and process appropriate information, and
only to the extent that it is needed to fulfil
operational needs or to comply with any legal
requirements;
- Ensure the quality of information used;
- Apply strict checks to determine the length of
time information is held;
- Ensure that the rights of people about whom
information is held, are able to be fully exercised
under the Act. (These include: the right to be
informed that processing is being undertaken, the
right of access to one’s personal information, the
right to prevent processing in certain circumstances
and the right to correct, rectify, block or erase
information which is regarded as wrong
information.);
- Take appropriate technical and organisational
security measures to safeguard personal information;
- Ensure that personal information is not
transferred abroad without suitable safeguards.
- Ensure that appropriate measures are put in
place to safeguard any personal data that is
processed on its behalf by other organisations.
In addition, RCGP will ensure that:
- There is someone with specific responsibility
for data protection in the organisation.
- All employees and others acting on behalf of the
College, managing and handling personal information:
» understands that they
are contractually responsible for following good
data protection practice;
» is appropriately trained to do so;
» is appropriately supervised;
- Anybody wanting to make enquiries about handling
personal information knows what to do;
- Queries about handling personal information are
promptly and courteously dealt with;
- Methods of handling personal information are
clearly described;
- A regular review and audit is made of the way
personal information is managed;
- Methods of handling personal information are
regularly assessed and evaluated;
- Performance with handling personal information
is regularly assessed and evaluated.
