Privacy Notice for Additional Hours Evaluation – Learners

Data protection legislation and personal data

This privacy notice sets out the legal basis for processing data in relation to this research project, which is being completed by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) an BMG. 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.

Why our use of your personal data is lawful

In order for our use of your personal data to be lawful, we need to meet one, or more, conditions in the data protection legislation.

DfE processes your data under the basis of Public Task (Article 6(1)(e) of GDPR). In this case, it is necessary for the department to carry out this work, and to use the information for these purposes, to exercise its functions.

How will my data be treated?

The research aims to understand more about additional support your school/college has been providing to help with your learning following the Covid-19 pandemic. The research is exploring what support has been provided, what works well or could be improved, the impact this has had on learners.

If you are invited and choose to take part in a survey, the information you give will only be used for purposes of this study. Please be aware that, if contacted, you are under no obligation to take part in the research. 

A report summarising the findings will be published at the end of the evaluation programme. Individuals will not be named in the reports, nor will any information be included that could reveal their identity.

Who we are

This work is being carried out by the Institute for Employment Studies and their sub-contractor BMG Research Limited on behalf of the Department for Education (DfE). For the purpose of data protection legislation, the DfE is the data controller for the personal data processed as part of the evaluation.

The nature of your personal data we will be using

The following information collected will collected by IES and BMG Research for the purpose of the evaluation:

  • your age
  • whether you have any additional support needs
  • the course name and level you are studying
  • interview and survey answers

Who we will make your personal data available to

We sometimes need to make personal data available to other organisations. These might include contracted partners (who we have employed to process your personal data on our behalf) and/or other organisations (with whom we need to share your personal data for specific purposes).

Where we need to share your personal data with others, we ensure that this sharing complies with data protection legislation. For the purpose of this project,

  • we need to share your personal data with a research contractor who the DfE have commissioned to undertake part of the evaluation activity on behalf of the Department. They will use the data as outlined above.
  • we are employing the Institute for Employment Studies and, through them, BMG Research Limited to process your personal data on or behalf. This means that they will be collecting data through the survey and analysing in on our behalf.

How long we will keep your personal data

We will only keep your personal data for as long as we need it for the purpose(s) of this piece of work, after which point it will be securely destroyed. Please note that, under Article 89 (1) of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), and in compliance with the relevant conditions, we can lawfully keep personal data processed purely for research purposes indefinitely. Our contractors will destroy all personal data by September 2024, which is six months following the end of the contract.

Your data protection rights

You have the right:

  • to ask us for access to information about you that we hold
  • to have your personal data rectified, if it is inaccurate or incomplete
  • to request the deletion or removal of personal data where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing
  • to restrict our processing of your personal data (i.e. permitting its storage but no further processing)
  • to object to direct marketing (including profiling) and processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics
  • not to be subject to decisions based purely on automated processing where it produces a legal or similarly significant effect on you

If you need to contact the DfE regarding any of the above, please do so via the DfE site at: https://www.gov.uk/contact-dfe.

Further information about your data protection rights appears on the Information Commissioner’s website at:

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/principle-6-rights/.

The right to lodge a complaint

If you are unhappy with our use of your personal data, please let us know by contacting

https://www.gov.uk/contact-dfe and state the name of this project.

Alternatively, you have the right to raise any concerns with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) via their website at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/.

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 Kate Alexander, Project Manager at IES: kate.alexander@employment-studies.co.uk

Last updated

We may need to update this privacy notice periodically, so we recommend that you revisit this information from time to time. This version was last updated in May 2023.