Privacy Information Notice: Future Female Finances in the Workplace

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 IES 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 Phoenix Group 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 IES 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 understanding how the gender pensions gap can be reduced. The legal basis for this research is therefore legitimate interest.

This legal justification applies to this research project, which is examining how the gender pensions gap can be reduced. The study will involve research involving in-depth interviews with employers identified by IES or their recruitment partner Qa Research and a sample of female individuals identified by Qa Research.

To arrange these interviews, your name and contact details (phone number, address, and email address) have been shared with the IES research teams by either Phoenix Group or Qa Research. This personal information will only be processed for the purposes of completing this research, under the direction of IES.

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. IES will treat the data they hold with respect, keeping them secure and confidential. In conducting this research on behalf of IES, IES are required to comply with Data Protection legislation and may only process your personal information under the direction of IES 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’ research 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 an interview, the information you give will only be used for the purposes of this study. The research findings will be shared with the Phoenix Group. It will directly inform a broader campaign surrounding female finances which is to be rolled out by Phoenix Group in Autumn 2022. Your input will be very useful in helping understand how policies and practices can be shared to help reduce the gender pensions gap.

Individuals will not be named in the findings we will share with Phoenix Group, nor will any information be included that could reveal their identity.

We may ask if yourself or you organisation would consider being named if the research team identifies a good practice example that could be shared within the final report as a case study. This will require special consent and you will be free to decline this invitation as outlined in the Information Sheet.

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 audio files from interview recordings, will be securely deleted from the IES systems after this study is complete (currently estimated to be 30 June 2023). All transcripts, handwritten notes taken during interviews, and anonymised notes from all interviews in relation to this work will be securely deleted from the IES systems by 30 June 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 interviews 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).

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