Privacy Information Notice: ‘Building a Living Pension’ trial

How we protect your data

This Privacy Information Notice tells you more about how your data will be used and stored.

Data protection legislation and personal data

This Privacy Information Notice outlines how your data will be used and stored.

Data protection legislation determines how, when, and why any organisation can process personal data. ‘Personal data’ means any information which can identify someone. ‘Processing’ means any actions performed on personal data, including: collection, storage, alteration or deletion. These laws exist to ensure that your data are managed safely and used responsibly. They also provide you with certain rights in respect of your data and creates a responsibility on the Living Wage Foundation as data controller to provide you with certain information.

This privacy notice sets out the legal basis for processing data in relation to this research project, which has been commissioned by the Living Wage Foundation and is being conducted on their behalf by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES). This includes who will have access to your personal data, how your data will be used, stored and deleted, your legal rights and who you can contact with a query or a complaint.

The legal basis for processing personal data

The legal basis under which the Living Wage Foundation and its contractors process personal data and ‘special category data’, such as information about your health and well-being, racial or ethnic origin, is for the broader societal benefits that the research aims to have by trialling the implementation of a living pension. The legal basis for this research is therefore legitimate interest.

This legal justification applies to this research project, which is examining how a living pension can be implemented within organisations. The study will involve focus groups with employees working for organisations involved in the living pensions trial run by the Living Wage Foundation.

To arrange these focus groups, your name, contact details (phone number, address, and email address) and personal information have been shared with the IES research team by the Living Wage Foundation. This personal information will only be processed for the purposes of completing this research, under the direction of the Living Wage Foundation.

Participation in the research is completely voluntary – just because you are contacted, does not mean that you have to take part and you can decline the invitation without having to give a reason.

Your personal data collected in this research project will only be used for research. All parties will treat the data they hold with respect, keeping them secure and confidential. In conducting this research on behalf of the Living Wage Foundation, all parties are required to comply with Data Protection legislation and may only process your personal information under the direction of the Living Wage Foundation and for the purposes set out in this research only.

Who will have access to my personal data?

Your contact details will be stored on an encrypted server, with access restricted solely to members of IES’ and the Living Wage Foundation project teams. Even after these contact details have been shared with the research team, you are still free to withdraw from the research and can decline to take part in an interview without having to give a reason.

If you agree to take part in a research interview, any information you provide will be summarised in an anonymised format – this means we will remove any information that could be used to identify you.

How will my data be treated?

If you are invited and choose to take part in a focus group, the information you give will only be used for the purposes of this study. The research findings will be shared with the Living Wage Foundation. It will directly inform the rollout of the living pensions trial that is scheduled to take place in early 2023. Your input will be very useful in helping understand the shape the trial should take and assess the steps taken by the Living Wage Foundation so far to prepare for the rollout. Quotes from the focus groups may be used to help support the rollout of the campaign but no personal identifiable information will be attributed to these quotes if they are used.

Individuals will not be named in the findings that IES will share with the Living Wage Foundation, nor will any information be included that could reveal their identity.

The period for which personal data will be stored

Data protection law requires that personal data are kept for no longer than is necessary. We only continue to hold personal data where they are still used to carry out research in the public interest.  We will anonymise the information you provide as soon as we practically can (i.e. within 2 weeks of the interview date). The personal data we may have used to contact you, as well as the survey information we have collected and audio files from focus group recordings, will be securely deleted from the IES and Living Wage Foundation systems after this study is complete (currently estimated to be 30 June 2023). All personal information, transcripts, handwritten notes taken during focus groups, and anonymised notes from all focus groups in relation to this work will be securely deleted from the IES systems by 30 July 2023.

Your rights

You have rights under data protection law to make the following requests for the personal data held about you that is being processed for this research, including:

■   To request access to this data

■   To amend any incorrect or inaccurate information

■   To restrict or object to your data being processed

■   To destroy this data

■   To move, copy or transfer your data.

You have the right to withdraw the information you have provided as part of the focus groups up to 14-days after the interview date. After this point the information will have been anonymised and will no longer be treated as personal data.

If you wish to discuss these rights, have any concerns, or want to make any requests about your personal data please contact the IES research team: Abbie Winton (abbie.winton@employment-studies.co.uk) or Rosie Gloster (rosie.gloster@employment-studies.co.uk).

Who can I contact if I would like to withdraw my interview data?

If you have taken part in an interview but would like your data withdrawn, please contact: Abbie Winton (abbie.winton@employment-studies.co.uk) or Rosie Gloster (rosie.gloster@employment-studies.co.uk).

Who can I contact with a query about how my data will be used?

If you have any questions about how your data will be used, please contact Abbie Winton (abbie.winton@employment-studies.co.uk) or Rosie Gloster (rosie.gloster@employment-studies.co.uk). If you have any other queries about the research or the living wage trial, please contact Shelley Morris (shelley.morris@livingwage.org.uk).

Further information on the rights available to you is also available from the Information Commissioner’s Office – the independent body responsible for regulating data protection within the UK. They can also deal with any complaints you may have regarding our use of your data:

■   Tel: 0303 123 1113

■   Email: casework@ico.org.uk

■   Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF