Declaration and management of outside interests for civil servants: privacy notice

Purpose

This notice provides information about how Scottish Government (‘SG’) process your personal data, as a close family member or close friend of an individual during their recruitment to the civil service, or following their employment in the civil service, and the rights you have under UK data protection legislation.

Who we are

The Scottish Government is the devolved government for Scotland. Its head office is located at St Andrews House, Regent Road, Edinburgh, EH1 3DG.

This privacy notice is to inform third parties (close family members or close friends) about the processing of their personal data.

This data may be processed in relation to the declaration and management of outside interests as part of declarations made during recruitment to the civil service, or thereafter, where declarations of relevant interests are recorded by Civil Servants employed by Scottish Government (including Executive Agencies) and Non-Ministerial listed below, on the Register of Interests.

Scottish Government core Directorates, Executive Agencies (Accountant in Bankruptcy, Disclosure Scotland, Education Scotland, Scottish Public Pension Agency, Social Security Scotland, Student Awards Agency for Scotland, Transport Scotland) and non-ministerial offices (Food Standards Scotland, National Records of Scotland, Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Revenue Scotland, Scottish Fiscal Commission, Scottish Housing regulator).

Scottish Government is the data controller for data relating to civil servants employed by Scottish Government (including SG Marine) and Executive Agencies (other than Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB)). Scottish Government is also a data processor for data relating to civil servants employed in Civil Service bodies within the SG main bargaining unit to whom we provide a shared service listed above.

If your interest relates to a Civil Servant working in a body using this shared service, then that organisation will be the data controller. SG will only process your data or respond to your data subject rights in consultation with the relevant data controller.

What personal data will be collected and processed

All Civil Servants are required by the Civil Service Code to adhere to the core values of integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality.

There is a UK-wide version of the Civil Service Code as well as a Scottish-specific version. Where an individual works for a non-ministerial department (a body accountable to officeholders rather than Scottish ministers) then the UK version applies, otherwise the Scottish version is applicable.

Civil Service bodies, as part of their civil service management functions need to implement and operate measures to ensure and promote compliance with the Civil Service Code and requirements set for Civil Servants in relation to the declaration and management of outside interests.

Civil Servants must not misuse their official position, or information acquired in the course of their duties, to further their private interests or those of others, including close family members or friends.

Close family member includes, for example, spouse or partner, adult children, parents and siblings.

Information is gathered as part of the recruitment process before employment in the civil service, and thereafter is recorded by Civil Servants employed on the Register of Interests, to support assurance activity as follows:

During the recruitment process

During the course of the recruitment process candidates are asked to consider and declare any outside interest that they, a close family member or close friend currently holds that may conflict or restrict the candidates ability to carry out their duties as a civil servant if appointed.

An outside interest can include but is not limited to personal interests (including personal relationships), financial interests, private shareholdings, business interests (including directorships), voluntary roles and previous employment, appointments or other roles.

Any declared outside interests will be reviewed by the hiring manager to decide whether a conflict exists and if any mitigating actions are needed to manage an identified conflict. In the event that an outside interest presents a conflict that cannot be mitigated, the offer of employment may be withdrawn.

As part of the Register of interests

Once employed, the Register of Interests is the mechanism by which relevant interests are documented and recorded by Civil Servants. The register collects personal information relevant to the official duties of Civil Servants.

Civil Servants are asked to declare whether they, or close family members or close friends, hold interests that may conflict or restrict their ability to carry out their duties as a civil servant.  

When registering their interests, Civil Servants are asked to confirm whether any declared interest relates to a close family member or close friend and provide a brief description of the relationship. Please note that staff are advised not to provide names of individuals.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of the types of outside interests that Civil Servants must declare on the Register of Interest if relevant to official duties:

• personal interests (including personal relationships), Financial Interests, Private Shareholdings, Voluntary Roles, Previous Employment, appointments or other outside roles, business interests, interests which may give rise to allegations of insider dealing, procurement activity and any other relevant interests
• in addition, civil servants are asked to declare all outside occupations (whether or not relevant to role)
• information will be gathered as and when an interest arises, and in addition Civil Servants should update their declaration of an outside interest when moving to a new role, when personal circumstances change and at a minimum annually as part of their End Year Review

Retention

Information on resourcing systems declared by candidates as part of the recruitment process will be kept for 2 years.

Information declared by civil servants on the Register of interests will be kept until it is either superseded, or the civil servant leaves the employment of the Scottish Government, at which point it will be retained for a period of seven years.

What we do with your data

We will use this data as part of our recruitment process and Register of Interests to ensure that any relevant interests are considered as part of the recruitment process or documented on the Register of interests and appropriate mitigations are put in place to meet our civil service management functions.

Scottish Government will only process data on the instruction of the data controller that the registered interest relates to.

Scottish Government will only process a rights request if instructed to do so by the relevant data controller.

Lawful basis

The lawful basis for processing personal data is Article 6(1)(e) ‘Processing is necessary for a task carried out in the public interest’,

The lawful basis for processing any information that is special category data is Article 9(2)(g) - necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.

Who we share data with

Your personal information will not be shared with any third party unless disclosure is required by law e.g. in relation to a Freedom of Information request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (unless exempt under this legislation). Your personal information will only be accessed by Scottish Government staff who need to do so.

Only specific staff identified as part of Role Based Access controls, including HR / digital staff, hiring manager for resourcing process and / or  line management for register of interest process can access your data held in Scottish Government records and systems.

Your rights

• the right to be informed – about how we are using your personal data, which is done through this privacy notice
• the right of access – you can request a copy of personal data we hold about you. You can also request data on behalf of someone else if they want you to do this
• the right of rectification – you have the right to have us rectify our records if we hold inaccurate or incomplete information about you
• the rights of  objection and restriction – to object to how your data is held on the the system or limit how we use it

These rights are not absolute and may be subject to an exemption under data protection legislation. To action your rights or to the ask questions about this privacy notice, please contact: HR.Help@gov.scot. The centralised contact (HR.Help@gov.scot) will liaise with the relevant data controller and only act in accordance with their instructions. You can read more about these rights on the website of the Information Commissioner.

Complaints

Contact us if you have any concerns about the information we hold about you at:

Scottish Government Data Protection Officer
Victoria Quay
Commercial Street
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ
DataProtectionOfficer@gov.scot 

If you have already made a complaint to us and are not happy with the outcome, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at:

The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 08456 30 60 60