Privacy Statement
The Department of Health and NHS ("DH/NHS" or "we" or "us") are committed to preserving the privacy of all visitors to this website. Please read the following privacy policy to understand how we use and protect the information that you provide to us.
By using this website you consent to the collection, use and transfer of the information that you provide to us in accordance with the terms of this policy.
We reserve the rights to change the contents of this website, including this privacy policy at any time, by posting such changes on the website. It is your responsibility to familiarise yourself with this policy regularly to ensure that you are aware of any changes. Your continued use of this website following the posting of any such changes will constitute your acceptance of the revised privacy policy.
If you do not accept this privacy policy, you may not use this website.
- Information collection
- Use of the information we collect
- providing information that you have requested
- handling your enquiries
- personalising your experience on the website
- providing access to some areas of the website, and
- keeping you up to date with services which may be relevant to you.
- Data Retention
- Disclosure of information
- Cookies
- Web Server Log Files
- Security
- Accessing and updating your information
- Links to external sites
- Contact
If you register with the website, or if you fill in a form on the website, you may be asked to provide information about yourself (including your name and contact details).
We may also collect information about your usage of this website as you and others browse and use our website (see section on "cookies"), as well as information about you from messages you post to the website and emails or letters you send to us.
Your personal information will be used for several general purposes, including:
We may also provide other information which we think you may find of interest, such as training events. DH/NHS may contact you by post, telephone or fax, as well as by e-mail.
Where email notifications are generated automatically by the system, you have the option to enable or disable this feature directly via the site.
Where email updates are sent out to an eSpace Group by the Group Administrator, opt-out of receiving this information should be discussed with the relevant Group Administrator.
If you are having difficulties in this area, please use the Contact Form to contact the eSpace Administrator, or contact nhscfh.espace@nhs.net
Your personal information will not be made available to any individual, or organisation outside DH/NHS.
DH/NHS will retain the personal information provided by you for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purposes listed in this policy.
The information you provide to us will be held on our computers, or the computers of one or more of our suppliers. The data we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area ("EEA"). It may also be processed, in accordance with this privacy policy, by staff who work for us or one of our suppliers operating outside the EEA. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing and processing. DH/NHS will take steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.
We may also pass anonymised information on the usage of our website onto third parties, but this information and any information derived from it will only be used by that third party to analyse usage of the site and report back to DH/NHS, for example to track and report user activity on the website.
We may disclose personal information in response to legal process, for example, in response to a court order or required to do so by law or in good-faith believing such action is necessary to comply with the law. We may also disclose such information in response to legal process where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, non-compliance with our terms and conditions of use, or as otherwise permitted or required by law and consistent with legal requirements.
Our website utilises a standard technology called "cookies" to collect information about how our website is used, and to record your preferences in order to give you the information you need during your visit. Information gathered through cookies allows us to monitor website traffic and to personalise the content of the site for you.
A cookie is a very small text document, which often includes an anonymous unique identifier. When you visit a website, that site's computer asks your computer for permission to store this file in a part of your hard drive specifically designated for cookies. Each website can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser's preferences allow it, but (to protect your privacy) your browser only permits a website to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites. Browsers are usually set to accept cookies. However, if you would prefer not to receive cookies, you may alter the configuration of your browser to refuse cookies. If you choose to have your browser refuse cookies, it is possible that some areas of our site will not function as effectively when viewed by you. A cookie cannot retrieve any other data from your hard drive or pass on computer viruses. A cookie does not hold any information about which sites you visited before this one.
IP addresses are used by your computer every time you are connected to the Internet. Your IP address is a number that is used by computers on the network to identify your computer. IP addresses are automatically collected by our web servers so that data (such as the web pages you request) can be sent to you.
Web server log files are used to record information about our site, such as system errors. DH/NHS eSpace also uses log files to monitor site traffic. Log files do not contain any personal information or information about which other sites you have visited.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we employ security measures to protect the information provided by you, DH/NHS cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site and any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use appropriate security procedures and features aimed at preventing any unauthorised access, unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction or damage.
You are entitled to see a copy of the information that we have collected from you and that we maintain. If you wish to do this, please email us at nhscfh.communications@nhs.net and insert "access request" as the subject heading. We may charge a small fee to meet our costs in providing you with these details.
You may ask us to make changes to the information provided by you and/or held about you, to ensure that it is accurate and kept up to date. You may also request that we cease from processing your personal information and that we delete this from our database or records. Please note that it may be impossible to completely delete your information because of back-ups and records of deletions.
We will only perform the activities outlined above to the extent that such activities will not compromise privacy, security or any other legal interests.
This website contains links to other websites, both those of government departments and of other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to this website, so when you are moving to another site which collects personal information you should always read the privacy policy relating to that website.
DH/NHS accepts no responsibility for the content found on any linked website.
For the avoidance of doubt, we do not pass on any personal information you have given us to any other website operators.
For all comments, queries and other requests relating to our use of your information, please contact us via the Contact Form, email nhscfh.espace@nhs.net, or notify us in writing at-
DH Informatics Directorate - Policy and Planning Directorate,
First Floor,
Quarry House,
Quarry Hill,
Leeds,
LS2 7UE