Information charter

Your privacy is important to us. We may need to handle personal information about you so that we can provide services for you. This charter is intended to give you confidence in the security of that information by explaining what we do with it.

If we ask you for personal information, we promise:

• to tell you why we need it;
• to ask only for what we need;
• to look after it and make sure it's only accessible within STFC to those with a genuine need to see it;
• to let you know where information is shared with any other organisations - and to give you the opportunity to say no to this where we can;
• to make sure that we don't keep it longer than necessary; and
• not to make your personal information available for commercial use without your permission.

In return, we ask you to:

• give us accurate information; and
• tell us as soon as possible if there are any changes, such as a new address.

This helps us to keep your information reliable and up to date.

You can get more details on:

• how to find out what information we hold about you and how to ask us to correct any mistakes;
• agreements we have with other organisations for sharing information;
• circumstances where we can pass on your personal information without telling you, for example, to prevent and detect crime, to produce anonymised statistics, or where we are required to do so by a relevant authority;
• our instructions to staff on how to collect, use and delete your personal information;
• how we check the information we hold is accurate and up to date; and
• how to make a complaint about how we hold or use your information.

STFC, together with the Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS), and partner organisations, has signed up to these shared principles for handling your information.

For more information, contact Angela Roythorne, Polaris House, Swindon 01793 442084.

When we ask you for information, we will keep to the law, including the Data Protection Act 1998. For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data-sharing issues, you can contact:

The Information Commissioner (link opens in a new window)
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF

Tel: +44 (0)8456 306 060 / +44 (0)1625 545 745
Fax: +44 (0)1625 524 510