Some of the language used in privacy notices can be specialised. The Information Commissioner's website provides a useful introduction to key terms and concepts.
This privacy notice is to be read in conjunction with the privacy notices for Tickets and Tour Bookings and for Unacceptable Actions Records which are publicly available on the Scottish Parliament website and can be accessed here:
Visitor Services Bookings meetings and enquiries
Security Unacceptable actions records
Following incidents in the public gallery during First Minister’s Questions (FMQs), which have resulted in Parliamentary business being suspended repeatedly, the Scottish Parliament’s Presiding
Officer has established that individuals who wilfully disrupt Parliamentary proceedings may be given sanctions to prevent them from attending the debating chamber for a certain period of time. In order to facilitate this, we need to process additional information from members of the public who book tickets for the public gallery to attend FMQs. This enables us to identify and contact individuals who have wilfully disrupted proceedings to enable us to impose sanctions such as excluding them from attending the public gallery for a specified period of time.
For the purposes of booking a ticket for the public gallery to attend FMQs we will process normal category data. Members of the public wishing to book tickets are asked to provide an email address, a telephone number for communicating about their booking and a name, and a postal address for each individual wishing to collect a ticket. Members of the public will also be asked to provide proof of their name when they attend to collect their ticket.
Data protection law states that we must have a legal basis for handling your personal data.
The legal basis for processing personal data from members of the public wishing to attend FMQs is that it is necessary for a task carried out in the public interest (Article 6(1)(e) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), as well as section 8(e) of the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA)) (democratic engagement). The task is to facilitate public engagement with Parliamentary proceedings in the Chamber, minimise the risk of disruption to parliamentary business, and to effect an exclusion for people who have wilfully disrupted parliamentary business.
Personal data in relation to ticket bookings is retained in either electronic or paper form and then destroyed 3 months after the date of the booking request, our reply, or the date for which the booking is made, whichever is the latest. Where a sanction has been imposed personal data will be retained for the period set out in the letter giving notice of the exclusion.
In line with the principles underlying the National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland (2014), published by the Scottish Government, our staff may report a concern to the relevant authorities if they come across an issue during their work which causes them to think that a child may be at risk of abuse or harm.
Data protection legislation sets out the rights which individuals have in relation to personal data held about them by data controllers. Applicable rights are listed below. You can exercise your data subject rights in particular circumstances depending on the purpose for which the data controller is processing the data and the legal basis upon which the processing takes place.
The following rights may apply:
You have the right to request a copy of the personal information about you that we hold. For further information, have a look at our page on Making a Subject Access Request.
You have the right to ask us to correct the personal data we hold about you. We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date and you may ask us to correct any personal information about you that you believe does not meet these standards.
You have the right at any time to require us to stop using your personal information for direct marketing purposes. In addition, where we use your personal information to perform tasks carried out in the public interest then, if you ask us to, we will stop using that personal information unless there are overriding legitimate grounds to continue.
You have the right to ask us to delete personal information about you where:
In some cases, you may ask us to restrict how we use your personal information. This right might apply, for example, where we are checking the accuracy of personal information about you that we hold or assessing the validity of any objection you have made to our use of your information. The right might also apply where there is no longer a basis for using your personal information, but you don't want us to delete the data. Where this right is validly exercised, we may only use the relevant personal information with your consent, for legal claims or where there are other public interest grounds to do so.
Where we use your personal information with your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time and we will stop using your personal information for the purposes for which consent was given.
Please contact us in any of the ways set out below if you wish to exercise any of these rights.
We keep this privacy statement under regular review and will place any updates on this website. Paper copies of the privacy statement may also be obtained using the contact information below.
This privacy statement was last updated on 14 April 2023.
We seek to resolve directly all complaints about how we handle personal information but you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office online at: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.
Or by phone at: 0303 123 1113
If you have any further questions about the way in which we process personal data, or
about how to exercise your rights, please contact the Head of Information Governance
at:
The Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh
EH99 1SP
Telephone: 0131 348 6913
(Calls are welcome through the Text Relay service or in British Sign Language through contactSCOTLAND-BSL.)
Email: dataprotection@parliament.scot
Please contact us if you require information in another language or format